/^ ,  oO.  \MC^-t2^^ 


GESTA    CHRIST!. 


GESTA     CHRIST/: 


OR 


A     HISTORY     OF     HUMANE     PROGRESS 
UNDER     CHRISTIANITY 


BY 


CHARLES    LORING    BRACE, 


AUTHOR    OF 


'Rmces  of  the   Old  World;'   "Hone  Life  in    Germany  and  Hungary 
"Norse  Folk"  "  Dungerous  Classes  of  Ne^v  I'o^k,"  etc. 


FIFTH    EDITION, 
WITH     NEW     PREFACE    AND    SUPPLEMENTARY    CHAPTER. 


NEW  YORK : 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  &  SON, 

51  East  10th  Street,  Near  Broadway, 

1897. 

^All  riglUs  rtsert<«d.\ 


CorVRGMT,  itts, 

^  CHARLES  LORINO  BRACK. 


PREFACE 

TO    THE    FOURTH    EDITION. 


BR 
C5^  71. 


The  reception  of  this  book  by  the  critics  and  the 
public  both  of  England  and  the  United  States  has 
been  cordial  beyond  what  could  have  been  reasonably 
expected. 

The  adverse  criticisms  have  been  carefully  and  can- 
didly considered  by  the  author.  The  censures  have 
come  from  two  opposite  sources:  from  those  who  believe 
little  or  nothing  in  Christianity  as  a  supernatural  power, 
and  from  those  who  believe  too  much. 

From  the  first  has  arisen  the  criticism  that  the  work 
has  left  out  of  view  several  great  moral  forces  enter- 
ing into  the  progress  of  the  race — such  as  Judaism, 
"'  Classicism,"  or  Greek  philosophy  and  Roman  law. 
Buddhism,  and  the  tendency  to  improvement  which 
comes  from  the  advancing  intellect  of  the  leading 
nations. 

These  objectors  insist  also  that  Christianity  and 
the  Church  should  never  be  separated;  that  the  latter 
is  the  only  embodiment  and  historical  representative 
of  the  other;  that  the  sins  and  defects  of  the  organ- 
ized body  must  fall  upon  its  Faith  and  its  head;  and 
that  Christianity  as  a  system  must  stand  or  fall  ac- 
cording to  the  history  of  the  Church. 


126G072 


VI  PREFACE   TO   THE  FOURTH  EDITION. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  have  been  led  by 
their  emotions  and  their  imaginations  to  consider  the 
history  of  the  Church  as  a  kind  of  "  Divine  epic,"  have 
charged  that  full  justice  was  not  done  in  this  work 
to  the  moral  power  and  influence  of  the  organized 
ecclesiastical  body  in  every  age.  They  have  seen 
what  blessings,  in  its  purest  epochs,  it  has  scattered 
among  mankind;  and  they  have  inferred — against  his- 
torical facts  —  what  a  power  of  unmingled  good  it 
must  have  been  in  all  periods. 

In  regard  to  the  first  criticisms  mentioned,  coming 
from  agnostic  sources,  the  author,  with  all  candor  and 
humility,  cannot  admit  their  justice.  He  has  assumed 
(perhaps  too  frequently)  that  the  best  of  "Judaism" — 
its  humanity  as  shown  in  legislation  for  the  stranger, 
its  spirit  of  charity  to  the  poor,  its  high  morality,  and 
its  deep  sense  of  the  divine — was  contained  in  Chris- 
tianity; that  the  latter  was  a  reformed  Judaism.  Many 
references  have  been  made  in  this  volume  to  its  influ- 
ence upon  barbaric  legislation,  through  the  Mosaic 
law.  A  portion  of  a  chapter  has  been  devoted  to  the 
infamous  and  unchristian  persecution  of  the  Jews  in 
various  centuries.  More  could  not  have  been  said  of 
Judaism,  or  such  of  its  features  as  were  inconsistent 
with  modern  progress  would  have  required  explaining 
and  defending — such  evils  as  legal  slavery,  polygamy, 
divorce  of  the  wife  by  the  husband,  blood-revenge  and 
various  archaic  laws  and  customs.  This  would  have 
led  the  investigation  away  from  its  object — namely,  to 
show  the  effects  of  Christianity  on  the  moral  progress 
of  the  world. 

In  regard  to  "  Classicism,"  surely  the  obligations  of 
the  world  to  Stoic  philosophy  and  Roman  law  are 
reiterated   in  numerous   pages.     The  author  would   feel 


PREFACE   TO  THE  FOURTH  EDITION.  vu 

himself  basely  ungrateful  to  a  school  of  morals  which 
to  him  has  only  been  next  to  the  Christian  faith,  in  its 
support  and  invigoration  amid  the  struggles  of  life,  if 
he  ever  neglected  to  acknowledge  the  courage,  hero- 
ism, elevation,  and  self-control  brought  home  to  him 
by  such  moralists  as  Socrates,  Epictetus,  Marcus  An- 
toninus and  others.  And  who  that  compares  the  Mid- 
dle Age  bigotry  and  superstition  with  the  pure  leason 
and  justice  of  the  Roman  law,  can  ever  cease  to  be 
grateful  for  its  wonderful  influence  upon  modern  prog- 
ress. Certainly  this  volume  cannot  justly  be  charged 
with  neglect  of  the  world's  obligation  to  this  grand 
system  of  human  thought. 

The  criticism  in  regard  to  Buddhism  seems  hardly 
worthy  of  reply.  The  author  holds  the  Buddhist  faith 
in  its  origin  as  second  only  to  the  Christian  religion 
in  pure  humanity  and  elevated  spirituality;  he  has  even 
avowed  his  belief  in  the  inspiration  of  Cakya  Muni,  its 
wonderful  founder. 

With  reference  to  the  present  moral  condition  of 
the  world  being  due  to  its  intellectual  progress  rather 
than  to  the  influence  of  its  leading  Faith,  of  course 
much  can  be  said  on  both  sides.  This  book  is  a 
carefully-framed  argument  to  show  what  have  been 
the  great  causes  working  towards  human  advance- 
ment. We  have  attempted  to  give  due  recognition 
to  all  the  forces  tending  towards  the  present  moral 
stage  of  progress  of  the  world.  It  may  be  that 
in  so  large  a  field  we  have  not  sufficiently  consid- 
ered each  one  of  these  influences.  But  we  have  at- 
tempted to  produce  facts  and  evidence  which  should 
make  it  probable,  that  by  far  the  greatest  factor 
in  the  moral  and  humane  progress  of  mankind,  is 
the    influence    of   the    person    and    teachings    of   Jesus 


viil  PREFACE  TO  THE  FOUR  TFT  EDITION. 

Christ,  The  argument  is  logical;  and  whoever  over- 
throws it,  cannot  do  so  by  vague  declamation,  but 
only  by  presenting  a  sufficient  cause,  other  than 
Christianity,  which  shall  account  for  these  facts  and 
changes. 

Whether  Christianity  should  always  and  everywhere 
be  held  as  identical  with  the  historical  Church,  is  a 
fair  question,  and  will  often  be  answered  according  to 
previous  prejudices.  Christianity  we  have  defined  as 
the  system  of  religious  faith  and  morals  to  be  derived 
from  the  words,  teachings,  and  character  of  Christ,  es- 
pecially as  conveyed  to  us  in  the  Gospels.  Now  the 
organization  which  teaches  this  system  and  represents 
it  to  the  world,  may  at  times,  from  various  causes,  be 
altogether  inconsistent  with  its  Founder, — His  spirit, 
and  His  doctrines.  Surely  then  the  Christian  system 
and  the  Church  would  be  two  different  things.  We 
know  what  the  Master  taught;  we  know  what  His 
followers  at  certain  epochs  practiced.  We  say  then 
that  the  latter  did  not  represent  their  Teacher;  that 
the  doctrines  and  words  and  lives  of  the  leaders  of 
the  historical  Church  at  certain  times  are  not  Chris- 
tianity, but  are  frequently  directly  opposed  to  it.  This 
surely  is  a  reasonable  position.  And  yet  we  would 
never  deny  that  there  were  in  every  age,  godly  men 
and  women,  practicing  the  truths  and  making  man- 
ifest the  spirit  of  their  Master.  These  formed  the 
Church  invisible,  the  unseen  line  of  believers  trans- 
mitting the  spirit  and  words  and  doctrines  of  the  great 
Teacher. 

Christianity  is  to  be  tested  by  the  life  and  words 
and  belief  of  its  professors.  Are  they  consistent  with 
those  of  the  Founder  ?  If  not,  they  are  not  what  He 
taught  and    introduced   into   the  w^orld.     Whatever   be 


PREFACE   TO   THE  FOURTH  EDITION.  at 

the  profession  or  name,  this  is  not  the  Christian  sys- 
tem or  its  fruits. 

That  the  historical  Church  has,  with  all  its  faults 
and  sins,  been  an  aid  to  civilization,  a  patron  of  learn- 
ing and  the  arts,  a  civilizer  of  wild  and  barbarous 
tribes;  and  a  restraint  on  cruel  and  tyrannical  rulers, 
ito  candid  student  of  history  can  deny.  Even  the  sem- 
blance of  the  gentle  Teacher  of  Judea  could  not  but 
be  a  blessing  to  mankind. 

To  the  present  edition  a  chapter  has  been  added  on 
the  relations  of  Christianity  to  Art  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  aesthetic  conceptions,  the  immortal  works  in  paint- 
ing and  architecture  that  have  arisen  from  religious 
enthusiasm  and  the  sense  of  beauty  during  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries,  are  but  as  a  side  effect  of  this 
Faith.  They  seem  hardly  worthy  of  being  classed  with 
the  record  of  noble  achievements  which  this  volume 
contains.  Still,  to  some  minds,  it  will  be  consistent 
that  He  who  felt  so  exquisitely  the  loveliness  of  the 
Palestine  lilies  and  the  wild  flowers  on  the  shores  of 
the  Galilean  lake,  should  have  inspired  such  souls  as 
the  gentle  monk  of  Fiesole  and  the  pure  artist  of 
Umbria,  with  ideals  of  beauty  and  devotion  that  must 
last  while  Art  endures;  and  that  He  whose  commun- 
ion with  the  Divine  was  especially  in  the  temple  not 
made  with  hands,  should  yet  have  not  disdained  to  call 
forth  in  His  followers  a  conception  of  a  house  of  wor- 
ship, than  which  the  human  imagination  has  not  con- 
ceived or  created  one  more  worthy  of  the  adoration  of 
the  Infinite  Spirit. 

It  is  a  subject  of  deep  thankfulness  to  the  author 
that  some  have  found  in  the  argument  of  this  volume, 
an  aid  to  faith  in  things  unseen  and  eternal.     He  him- 


B  PREFACE  TO  THE  FOURTH  EDITION, 

self  believes  that  the  personality  of  Christ  is  to  be 
more  and  more  an  element  in  human  progress,  and 
that  the  advance  of  humanity  and  of  civilization  in 
the  moral  field,  is  but  a  continual  approach  towards 
Him. 

CHARLES  LORING  BRACE. 

Chesknoll, 

DoBBs  Ferry,  N.  Y., 

September,  1884. 


PREFACE. 


The  writer  of  this  work  has  been  engaged  for  some 
thirty  years  in  a  practical  application  of  the  principles  of 
Christianity,  with  the  view  of  curing  certain  great  social 
evils  in  the  City  of  New  York,  He  has  been  able  to  test 
its  power  on  a  large  scale,  in  diminishing  poverty,  crime 
and  misery.  He  has  also  had  a  humble  share  in,  and 
been  a  witness  of,  the  great  effort  of  the  United  States 
to  remove  its  tremendous  evil — Slavery  ;  and  he  knows 
how  far  Christian  ideas  were  at  the  foundation  of  this 
great  reform,  and  how  much  they  stimulated  and  sup- 
ported the  long  struggle. 

For  many  years  studies  in  the  laws  and  history  of  the 
Roman  Period  and  the  Middle  Ages  have  shown  him  the 
traces  (often  almost  obliterated)  of  the  silent,  profound 
working  of  the  great  reforming  Power  of  the  world.  He 
has  also  been  engaged  in  examining  and  presenting  in 
public  writings,  the  influence  of  the  Christian  Faith  in 
the  more  modern  period,  on  International  Law,  Arbitra- 
tion, and  the  relations  of  nations. 

It  has  seemed  to  him  that  to  write  a  condensed  history 
of  the  progress  of  the  humane  ideas,  practices,  and  rules 
of  action  taught  or  encouraged  by  this  Religion,  would  be 


rii  PREFACE. 

a  useful  thing — especially  as  making  them  a  more  dis- 
tinct possession  and  code  of  the  civilized  world,  and  as 
forming  an  indirect  argument  (not  less  powerful  for  being 
indirect)  for  the  truth  of  this  Faith.  Yet  in  considering 
this  subject,  one  must  not  confound  Christianity  and  the 
Church.  Whoever  believes  he  can  construct  a  kind  of 
*'  Divine  epic  "  from  the  history  of  the  organized  Church, 
either  voluntarily  deceives  himself,  or  follows  the  will  o' 
wisp  light  of  a  false  sentiment. 

There  are  certain  practices,  principles  and  ideals — now 
the  richest  inheritance  of  the  race — that  have  been  either 
implanted  or  stimulated  or  supported  by  Christianity. 

They  are  such  as  these  :  regard  for  the  personality  of 
the  weakest  and  poorest ;  respect  for  woman  ;  the  absolute 
duty  of  each  member  of  the  fortunate  classes  to  raise 
up  the  unfortunate;  humanity  to  the  child,  the  prisoner, 
the  stranger,  the  needy,  and  even  the  brute ;  unceasing 
opposition  to  all  forms  of  cruelty,  oppression  and  slavery  ; 
the  duty  of  personal  purity  and  the  sacredness  of  mar- 
riage ;  the  necessity  of  temperance ;  the  obligation  of  a 
more  equitable  division  of  the  profits  of  labour,  and  of 
greater  co-operation  between  employers  and  employed  ; 
the  right  of  every  human  being  to  have  the  utmost  op- 
portunity of  developing  his  faculties,  and  of  all  persons 
to  enjoy  equal  political  and  social  privileges ;  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  injury  of  one  nation  is  the  injury  of  all, 
and  the  expediency  and  duty  of  unrestricted  trade  and 
intercourse  between  all  countries ;  and,  finally  and  princi- 
pally, a  profound  opposition  to  war,  a  determination  to 
limit  its  evils  when  existing,  and  to  prevent  its  arising  by 
means  of  international  Arbitration. 


PREFACE.  3dH 

Ideals,  principles  and  practices  such  as  these  are  among 
the  best  achievements  of  Christianity. 

It  has  seemed  to  the  writer  not  impossible,  that  great 
numbers  of  the  vast  English-speaking  race  in  Great 
Britain,  America,  and  Australia,  and  from  the  cultured 
peoples  of  the  Continent,  might  more  and  more  unite  in 
a  kind  of  moral  Confederation  throughout  the  world  to 
support  and  advance  and  spread  these  great  and  humane 
ideas.  To  have  given  even  the  faintest  impulse  towards 
this  consummation  and  this  progress,  would  be  alone  not 
to  have  lived  in  vain. 


CHARLES  LORING  BRACE. 


Chesknoll, 

DoBBS   Ferry,  N.  Y., 

Nov.  C)th,   1882. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I.— Introduction ,       i 

Plan  of  the  work. — An  Investigation  of  the  Influence  of 
Christianity  on  the  Practices,  Customs,  Laws  and  Morals, 
(i)  Of  the  Roman  Period;  (2)  The  Middle  Ages.;  (3) 
The  Modern  Period. 

I. 

ROMAN  PERIOD. 
Chapter  II.— Paternal  Power o 


Instances  of  Paternal  Tyranny  in  Roman  History. — Re- 
forms in  Constantine's  and  Justinian's  Legislation  under 
Christian  Influences. — Succession  of  Property. — Changes 
through  Stoical  Influences. — Reforms  in  Justinian's  Code. 
— The  Beginnings  of  Modern  Reforms. 

Chapter  III.— The  Position  of  Woman  under  Roman 

Law 19 

Tutelage  of  Woman. — Free  Marriage. — Reforms  under  Jus- 
tinian's Code. — Divorce. — Instances  in  the  Roman  Period. 
— Reforms  brought  about  by  Christianity  in  Constantine's 
and  Justinian's  Legislation. — Concubinage. — Improve- 
ments under  Christianity. 

Chapter  IV.— Personal  Purity  and  Marriage        .       .      29 

Christ's  Influence  on  Masculine  Purity,  on  Marriage. — His 
Teachings  as  to  Separation. — Celibacy. — Effect  of  Christ- 
ianity on  Position  of  Woman. — Unnatural  Vices. — Plato's 
Principles  as  to  their  Abolition. — Opposition  of  Early 
Christians  to  them. — Victory  of  Christian  Principles. 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

lAGt 

Chapter  V  —Slavery 41 

The  Silence  of  Christ. — Explanation. — The  Slave  in  the 
Church. — Stoics  and  Slavery. — Number  of  Roman  Slaves. 
— Reforms  under  the  Stoics. — Christian  Influence  on 
Legislation.  —  Emancipation  as  a  Religious  Duty. — 
Humanity  Towards  Slaves.— Justinian's  Reform. — Hu- 
manity under  Christian  Influence. — Reforms  under  other 
Emperors. — Gradual  Emancipation. 

Chapter  VI. — Slaves  rN  Cruel  and  Licentious  Sports  6i 
Bloody  Sports. — Reforms  by  Constantine. — Human  Sacri- 
fices.— Licentious  Shows. — Feelings  of  the  Early  Chris- 
tians.—  Reform  in  Roman  Laws. — Licentiousness  Re- 
strained.— RansomingCapti  ves. — Rehabilitation  of  Labour. 
— Serfdom. — Reforms  under  Religious  Teaching 

Chapter  VII.— Exposure  of  Children  .  ...  72 
Allusions  to  it  in  Latin  Literature. — Mode  of  Exposure. — 
Stoical  Protests. — The  Early  Fathers'  Denunciations. — 
Constantine's  and  Valentinian's  Legislation. — The  Coun- 
cils.— Justinian's  Code. — Treatment  of  Foundlings  by  the 
Church. — Orphan  Asylums. — Charities  for  Children. 

Chapter  VIII.— Humanity  in  Roman  Law  ...  84 
Humane  Legislation  of  Constantine. — Sunday  Laws. — 
Prison  Reform. — Disfiguring  the  Face  Forbidden.— 
Kindly  Feeling  in  Roman  Law.—  Opposition  to  War  by 
Early  Christians. — Instances. — Burial  Inscriptions. — Pre- 
paration for  Arbitration. 

Chapter  IX.— Distribution  of  Property  ....  93 
Christ's  Teachings  Tending  to  more  Equitable  Distribution. 
— Charity.  —  Roman  Pauperism.  —  Roman  Charities. — 
Bequests. — Collegia.  —  Christian  Charity.  —  Refuges  for 
Orphans. — Strangers'  Rests. — Hospitals. — The  Code, — 
Christ's  Teachings  Opposed  to  Pauperism.— Excessive 
Almsgiving  and  Monasticism  not  an  Effect  of  Christian- 
ity.— The  Problem  not  Solved  by  the  Christian  Religion, 
but  its  Truths  lead  towards  Equal  Distribution. 

Chapter  X.— Resum^  of  Reforms  in  Roman  Period      .    106 
Christianity  Influenced  Patria  Potestas  and   Succession  of 
Property  ;  Diminished  Unnatural  Vices  ;  Taught  Purity  ; 
Put  an  end  to  Exposure  of  Children  ;  Founded  Charities 


CONTENTS.  xvu. 

rAGB 

and  Taught  more  Equitable  Distribution  of  Wealth 
Checked  Licentious  and  Cruel  Sports,  and  caused  Humane 
Legislation ;  Mitigated  and  Undermined  Slavery  and 
Serfdom  ;  Elevated  Woman  and  Marriage. — Need  of 
Fresh  Races  for  the  True  Work  of  Religion. — Afforded  by 
the  Keltic  and  German  Tribes. 

II. 

MIDDLE  AGES. 

Chapter  XI.— Position  of  Woman  under  the  German 

Tribes 117 

German  Chastity. — Tutelage  of  Woman. — Purchase  of  Wife. 
— Instances.  —  Scandinavian  Customs.  —  Subjection  of 
Woman. — Wife  under  Power  of  Husband  in  German  Law. 
— Position  of  Woman  having  Stamp  of  Barbarism  ;  de- 
scended into  English  Common  Law. — Free  Marriage. — 
Christianity  strove  to  Elevate  Woman  and  Strengthen 
Marriage  ;  Changed  Purchase-money  into  Dower ; 
Lessened  Tutelage. — The  Dower. —  Change  of  Tutelage. — 
Religion  opposed  German  Prejudice  that  Bodily 
Strength  was  a  Condition  of  Civil  Capacity. —  Inferiority 
of  Woman  continued  in  Common  Law. — Sir  Thomas 
Smith's  Statements. — Gains  of  Christianity. 

Chapter  XII.— Personal  Feuds  and  Private  Wars  .  137 
Feuds  Universal  in  Barbaric  Society. — Money- Fines  in  Place 
of  Revenge  stimulated  by  Religion.  — Feuds  checked  in 
Holy  Days  and  Places. — Instance  from  old  Russian  Code. 
— Law  and  Penalty  substituted  for  Private  Revenge, 
under  Influence  of  Christian  Faith. 

Chapter   XIII. — Private   War   and    Peace   of    God. — 

Arbitration 143 

Forms  of  Declaring  Private  War. — Instances.— The  Desola- 
tion of  Germany  and  France. — The  Peace  of  God. — 
Crusade  of  Peace  in  France. — Efforts  of  Religious  Men. 
— Pledge  of  Peace. — Peace  Associations. — Councils. — 
Efforts  of  Popes. — A  Messenger  of  Peace. — Truce  of  God. 
— Peace  in  Germany. —  Leagues  of  the  Rhine. — Applica- 
tion of  Arbitration. — Forms.— Stimulated  by  Religious 
Sentiment. —  Instances. — End  of  Diffidation. — Abolitiop 
»f  Private  War  in  Spain,  Italy,  and  Iceland. 


xviii  CONTENTS. 

PACB 

Chapter  XIV. — Wager  of  Battle  and  Ordeal  .  .  i6o 
Judicial  Duel  Among  the  Northern  Tribes. — English  Prac- 
tice.— Forms  Used. — Opposition  of  the  Spirit  of  Christi- 
anity.— The  Councils  and  Popes. — First  Forbidden  in 
Iceland  after  its  Conversion. — Its  Abolition,  Slow. — 
Existed  in  England  till  the  Nineteenth  Century. — Ordeal 
first  Opposed  by  Church,  then  Accepted  and  Used. — 
Spirit  of  Religion  Opposed  it. 

Chapter  XV. — Torture .       .    178 

Implanted  by  Roman  Law. — Early  Church  Opposed,  then 
Used  it. — Description  of  Tortures. — The  Strappado. — 
Torture  in  England. — Opposition  of  Church. — Subsequent 
Acceptance. — Spirit  of  Religion  Struggled  against  it. — 
Not  Abolished  in  Parts  of  Europe  till  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury.— Recent  Abolition  in  Japan. 

Chapter  XVI. — The  Strangers'  Rights     .       .       .       .190 
Teutonic  Hostility  to  Strangers. — Instances. — Droit  cPaii- 
bainc  in   France. — Abolished  in    1790. — Other    Inequali- 
ties later. — The  Teutonic  Legislation  shows  the  Influence 
of  Christianity. 

Chapter  XVII.— The  Wreckers'  Right,  and  Piracy      .    197 
All  Teutonic  Codes  urge  Humanity  to  the  Shipwrecked  on 
Religious  Grounds  — Instances. — Judgments  of  the    Sea. 
— Councils. — Humane   Legislation. — Treaties. — Piracy. — 
A  Form  of  Private  War. 

Chapter  XVIII. — Charlemagne's  Capitularies  .  .  202 
Teaching  of  Morals  on  Religious  Grounds.—  Commands 
against  Feud,  Oppression,  and  Perjury. — In  favour  of 
Marriage,  and  against  Divorce  and  Unnatural  Vice. — 
Injunctions  against  Oppression  of  the  Stranger  and  the 
Poor. — Laws  soon  swept  away,  but  showing  Influence  of 
this  Faith. 

Chapter  XIX. — Anglo-Saxon  Law 206 

Its  Spirit  Manifestly  Affected  by  Christianity. — Contrast 
to  other  Codes. — Laws  of  Old  English  Kings. — King 
Wihtraed. — Alfred's  Dooms — Moral  Teachings. — Sun- 
day Laws. — Humanity  to  Shipwrecked. — False  Swearing. 
—  King    Ethelred's    Dooms.  —  Religious    Laws.  —  King 


CONTENTS.  xir 

PACK 

Canute.  —  Saxon  Piety.  —  Feuds.  —  Anc  ent  Laws.  — 
Alfred's  Injunctions. — All  show  the  Beginning  of  History 
of  Religious  Forces  in  England. 

Chapter  XX, — Education  in  the  Middle  Ages  .  .217 
Christianity  Favourable  to  Intellectual  Advance. — Early 
Efforts  of  the  Church  Encouraging  Learning.—  Early 
Christian  Schools. — Councils. — Letter  of  Charlemagne. 
— Instruction  of  Theodolfus. — Copying  Manuscripts. — 
Thomas  k  Kempis. — The  Pope's  Efforts.  —  Christian 
Truth  Opens  Mind  of  Man  to  Truth. 

Chapter  XXL— Serfdom  and  Slavery  in  the  Middle 

Ages 224 

The  Process  by  which  Serfdom  Arose. — Christian  Influence 
on  Slavery. — Slavery  in  the  Middle  Ages. — Acts  of  Coun- 
cils Favourable  to  Slaves  — Sunday  Laws. — Religious 
Element  in  Emancipation. — P'orms  of  Manumission. — 
Muratori  and  Marculfus. — Peasants'  Revolts  Under  the 
Liberal  Teaching  of  Christianity. — Their  Objects. — 
Effects  on  Villainage. — Emancipation  Gradual. — Free- 
dom of  Serfs  by  Bologna. — Slave  Trade. — Emancipation 
in  Germany. — Abolition  in  Scandinavia  a  Direct  Effect 
of  Religion. — English  Slavery  Causes  Selling  Children.  — 
Number  of  Slaves  in  England  —  Religious  Influence  in 
Emancipation.— Christian  Brotherhood. — Gradual  Eman- 
cipation.—Forms. — Slave  Trade  Forbidden. — Slaves  after 
the  Norman  Conquest. — Religious  Forces  Causing  Eman- 
cipation.— Sir  Thomas  Smith's  Testimony. — Serfdom  Dis- 
appeared in  Reign  of  Charles  I. 

Chapter  XXII. — Chivalry 253 

Ideal  of  Chivalry. — Original. — Forms  and  Oaths  Religious. — 
Virtues  Taught  Corresponded  to  Christian. — Froissart. — 
Humanity.  —  Courtesy. — Pity.  —  Purity.  —  Brotherhood. — 
Devotion  to  Woman. — The  Ideal  an  Effect  of  Chris- 
tianity on  the  German  Temperamenu — Its  Defects  and 
Vices. — Uncertain  how  far  Chivalry  was  a  Reality. — The 
Chivalric  Character  Endures  under  Religious  Ir  iuences. 

Chapter  XXII I. — Resum^  of    Reforms  in  the   Middle 

Ages 27. 

(i)  Value  Attached  by  Christianity  to  Marriage,  nnd  New 
Position  of  Woman. — (2)  Restraint  of  Feud  and  Blood 


CONTENTS. 

Revenge. — (3)  Checking  Private  War  by  Peace  of  God. — 
(4)  Urging  Arbitration. — (5)  Opposing  Judicial  Duel  and 
Ordeal.  —  (6)  Restraining  Torture.  —  (7)  Commanding 
Humanity  to  the  Stranger  and  Shipwrecked. — (8)  Power 
of  Religion  over  Codes  of  Law.  — (9)  Its  Influence  on 
Education. — (10)  Gradual  Effect  on  Slavery  and  Serf- 
dom.— (11)  Founding  Charities. — (12)  Influence  on  the 
Chivalric  Ideals. — Reasons  of  its  Want  of  Full  Success. 


III. 

MODERN    PERIOD. 

Chapter     XXIV. — The     Position    of     Woman     Under 

Modern  Influences 283 

Position  of  Woman  since  Christianity  a  Composite  One. — 
Christian  Idea  Entire  Equality  of  Man  and  Woman. — 
English  Common  Law  Inherits  Teutonic  Prejudice  of 
Measuring  Civil  Rights  by  Physical  Power. — -The  Wife's 
Legal  Existence  Suspended. — Coverture. — Woman  Under 
Common  Law.  — Equity  Courts. — American  Legislation. 
— Reforms  in  New  York. — Position  of  the  Mother. — Pro- 
tection to  the  Young  Girl. —  Partnership  in  Property. — 
Female  Suffrage. — Woman  in  the  United  States. — In 
Europe. — Future  of  Woman  under  Agnosticism. 

Chapter  XXV.— Divorce 300 

Christian  View. — Roman  Law. — Churchly  Doctrines. — 
Views  of  Reformers. — European  Tendencies. — United 
States  Law. — Views  of  Judges. — Laws  in  New  York- 
License  of  Divorce.— Change  of  Opinion  in  the  United 
States. —  Effects  of  Free  Divorce  in  New  York. —Future 
Effects  in  America. — General  Happiness  of  Marriage  in 
the  United  States. — Concubinage. — Humane  Progress. 

Chapter  XXVI. — Degradation  of  Woman        .       .       .315 
Apparent  Failure  of  Christianity. — Reforms  Begun. — Mas- 
culine Purity. — Efforts  for  Children. — Effects  of  Religion. 
— Hope  for  the  Future. 

Chapter  XXVI I.— International  Law.— Arbitration     .    320 
The  Expense  and  Curse  of  War. — International  Law  among 
the  Greeks  ;  the  Romans  ;  in  the  Middle  Ages.— Cruelties 


CONTENTS.  xxi 

PAGB 

and  Barbarism  in  War. — Treatment  of  Prisoners  ;  of 
Ambassadors. — Grotius'  Views. — Claims  of  Christian  Na- 
tions on  Heathen  Territory. — Privateering. — FrankHn.— 
Congress  of  Paris,  1856.— Inviolability  of  Private  Property 
on  the  Sea. — The  New  Codes  of  Prof.  Bluntschli,  and 
the  American  Instructions. — The  Wounded. — Arbitra- 
tion.— History  of  Modem  Cases. — Mediation. — Disputes 
as  to  Territories. — The  Geneva  Settlement. — Universal 
Peace.  —  International  Courts. — Objections.  —  Interna- 
tional Law  Among  Non-Christians. 

Chapter  XXVIII.— Slave  Trade  and  Slavery  in  Mo- 
dern Times 363 

Both  Catholic  and  Protestant  Churches  Guilty. — Sketch  of 
Slave  Trade. — Treaty  of  Utrecht. — Slave  Trade  in  British 
Colonies;  in  Great  Britain. — The  Struggle. —  Its  Final 
Abolition.  —  Slavery  and  its  Abolition  in  the  British 
Colonies ;  in  the  United  States.— Early  Anti-Slavery 
Position  of  the  Churches. — Later  Weakness. — Origin  of 
the  Opposition  Religious. — Other  Elements  Mingling. 

Chapter  XXIX. — Modern  Serfdom      ....  387 

Royal  Ordinances  against  it  in  Prussia  ;  in  France  and 
Italy.— Christian  Ideas  Working  against  it. — AboHtion  in 
Germany,  Hungary,  Prussia,  and  other  Countries. 

Chapter  XXX. — The  Duel .       .391 

Bentham's  Arguments  for  it. — Reply. — The  Struggle  of 
the  Church. — Its  Prevalence  in  France  and  England. — 
Public  Protests  and  Laws  against  it.  —  Experience  of 
the  United  States. — Its  Cessation  due  to  Christianised 
Public  Opinion. 

Chapter  XXXI.— Prison  Reform  and  Charities     .  399 

Constantine's  Legislation.— Howard. — The  "Irish"  Prison 
System. — American  Reforms.— Charities. — Societies  to 
Protect  Animals. — Humanization  of  Punishments. — Cruel 
Penalties  of  the  Past.—  Modern  Improvements. — Imprison- 
ment for  Debt. — The  Sunday.— Its  Value  to  the  World. 

Chapter  XXXIL— Co-operation  and  Pauperism        .       .    413 
Co-operation. — Communism.—  Insurance    against    Poverty. 
— Religion  lessening  Pauperism.— A  Socialist's  Views  on 
Christianity. 


xxii  CONTENTS. 

PAd 

Chapter   XXXIII.— Free   Trade. —  Humanity. — Liberal 

Government 420 

Progress  of  Ideas  in  Favour  of  Freer  Intercourse. — Hu- 
manity between  Nations.  —Treatment  of  Inferior  Races. 
— Missions. — Popular  Education. —Churclies.— Hope  Im- 
planted.— Liberal  Government. —  Diminution  of  Pesti- 
lences, due  only  in  Part  to  Religion. 

Chapter  XXXIV.— Intemperance 433 

Its  Evils  in  America  and  Europe. — Temperance  Movement. 
— Total  Abstinence. — Influence  of  Religion. 

Chapter  XXXV.— Persecution 441 

No  Foundation  for  in  Christianity. — Guilt  of  the  Church. — 
Treatment  of  the  Jews  ;  of  Heretics  and  Schismatics. — 
Liberal  Views  of  John  Robinson  ;  of  Grotius. — Experience 
of  the  United  States. 

Chapter  XXXVI.  —  Humane  Progress  Among  Non- 
Christian  Peoples 445 

Continuity  of  Revelation. — Spiritual  Ideas  of  Hindoos. — 
Caste,  and  Position  of  Woman. — Buddhism. — Inspiration 
of  Buddha. — His  Defects. — The  Failure  of  this  Faith, — 
Confucianism. — Its  Merits  and  Wants. — The  Arabs. — 
Mohammedanism. — Its  Wants  and  Failure. — Position  of 
Mohammedan  Woman. — Buddhism,  Brahmanism,  Con- 
fucianism not  adapted  for  Humane  Progress.— Climate 
not  alone  the  Cause. 

Chapter  XXXVII.— Objections.— Resume  of  Reforms 
Begun.— The  Future  of  Mankind  Under  Chris- 
tianity      463 

Objections  that  the  Christian  Ideal  is  Unmanly;  Unfit  for 
the  Struggle  for  Existence ;  Not  Favourable  to  Accumu- 
lation of  Wealth,  Opposed  to  Progress  of  Science  and 
to  Liberal  Institutions. — Objection  to  Slow  Working  of 
Christianity. — Obstructions. — The  Drift  of  Evolution  in 
Favour  of  Sympathy,  Unselfishness,  and  Morality. — 
Christianity  Works  with  it,  and  adds  a  New  Force. — Its 
Final  Tendency  a  Perfect  Society. — Inference  from  the 
Facts,  and  Argument  for  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  Re» 
ligion 


CONTENTS.  nfii 

Supplementary  Chapter. — The  Influence  of  Christi- 
anity UPON  Art  in  the  Middle  Ages  .  .  .  477 
Supposed  want  of  Sympathy  of  the  Christian  Religion 
with  the  Sense  of  Beauty. — Two  highest  Conceptions 
in  Art  from  the  Influence  of  this  Faith;  namely,  (i)  of 
the  Holy  Madonna  in  Painting,  and  (2)  the  Pointed  Gothic 
Cathedral  in  Architecture. — The  Madonna. — Raphael's 
Sistine  Madonna. — The  Originality  of  this  Ideal;  its  Re- 
ligious Power. — New  Religious  Life  in  the  Fourteenth 
and  Fifteenth  Centuries. — Italian  Preachers. — Savona- 
rola.— Luther. — Influence  on  Art. — Cimabue. — Giotto. 
— Encouragement  by  Synods  and  Popes. — Painting  on 
Glass. — Fraternities  of  Painters;  their  Religious  Objects. 
— Francis  d'Assisi  ;  his  Effect  upon  Fra  Angelico. 
Character  and  Works. — The  Bologna  School. — Lippo 
Dalmasio. — Savonarola;  his  Influence  on  Art. — Lorenzodi 
Credi. — Fra  Bartolommeo. — Ridolfo  Ghirlandaio. — Bot- 
ticelli.— Michael  Angelo. — Venetian  School;  Bellini  and 
others. — The  Umbrian  School. — Perugino. — Raphael. — 
Pointed  Gothic  Cathedral. — Origin  of  Pointed  Gothic; 
its  Ideal  and  Principles;  the  Pointed  Arch;  its  Effect  on 
Structure. — The  Cologne  Cathedral;  its  Religious  Power. 
— Gilds  of  Masons  in  the  Thirteenth  and  Fourteenth  Cen- 
turies; their  Religious  Enthusiasm,  Character,  Honesty, 
and  Reverence  of  Work;  a  Laical  Church;  expressed  their 
Love  of  Beauty  and  Piety  in  building  of  Cathedrals;  sole 
Conditions,  the  Pointed  Arch,  Cruciform  Ground-plan,  and 
Suitability  to  Climate. — But  Pointed  Gothic  a  Develop- 
ment from  other  Styles. — Spirit  of  Founders  of  English 
Cathedrals. — Free  Masons  or  Gilds  of  Builders. — Their 
Honesty  of  Work  often  an  unconscious  Religion;  inspired 
by  Christianity. — These  two  Conceptions,  the  Madonna 
and  the  Cathedral,  Side-gifts  of  the  Christian  Faith. 

Appendix.— Ancient  Hungarian  Legislation  ...    501 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION.— PLAN  OF  THE  WORK. 

At  a  certain  era  in  the  world's  history — not  very  remote 
as  compared  with  the  duration  of  the  human  race  on  the 
earth — there  appeared  a  new  moral  force  in  human  history. 
It  originated  in  an  obscure  tribe  of  a  remote  province  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  was  embodied  in  the  personality, 
life  and  teachings  of  a  remarkable  Being — called  jESUS 
the  Christ. 

The  moral  truths  in  these  teachings  were  not  absolutely 
new — as  indeed  the  principles  of  morality  rest  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  human  nature,  and  must  be  known,  more  or  less 
clearly,  to  all  men — but  they  were  presented  with  such 
unequalled  simplicity  and  earnestness,  and  illustrated  by 
a  life  and  character  of  such  unexampled  elevation  and 
purity,  and  accompanied  with  spiritual  truths  so  profound 
and  universal,  as  well  as  with  supernatural  claims,  that  the 
whole  formed  a  new  power  in  the  world  for  the  moral 
renovation  of  man — in  other  words,  a  RELIGION ;  but 
one  claiming  to  be  absolute  and  universal,  for  all  ages  and 
races  and  circumstances. 

The  object  of  this  work  is  to  examine  the  effects  of  this 
faith  or  moral  power  on  the  advancement  of  the  race  in 
humanity  and  morality;  both  what  it  has  accomplished, 
and  what  it  tends  to  accomplish.  In  other  words,  we  shall 
seek  to  show  what  Christianity  has  already  done  for  the 
world,  and,  considering  its  nature  and  objects,  and  its 
effects  in   a   comparatively   brief   period,   we   shall  infer 

1  B 


2  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

what  will  be  its  influence  in  a  far  longer  period.  Tho 
investigation  is  difficult  for  various  and  often  opposing 
reasons.  Many  influences,  material,  moral  and  intellectual, 
have  combined  to  efl*ect  the  advance  of  the  race  in  mo- 
rality and  humanity.  The  problem  is  to  estimate  the 
peculiar  influence  of  this  new  moral  power.  Then  the 
civilized  world  has  become  so  imbued  with  the  ideas  and 
feelings  implanted  or  strengthened  by  this  faith,  that  those 
who  have  apparently  opposed  and  attacked  it,  have  not 
unfrequently  been  those  most  animated  by  its  principles. 
While,  on  the  other  hand — so  dangerous  is  the  efiect  of 
power  and  ambition  even  in  the  religious  field — the  organi- 
zation which  might  be  supposed  to  most  expressly  represent 
its  truths  has  often  been  the  most  opposed  to  it  in  life  and 
action.  In  the  course  of  history,  the  sceptics,  in  matters 
of  mercy  and  justice,  have  often  been  nearer  Christ  than 
professed  believers;  and  the  Christian  Church  has  favoured 
practices  and  encouraged  institutions,  which  have  been  a 
travesty  on  the  teachings  of  Christ,  and  an  offence  to  every 
feeling  of  humanity.  The  student  who  searches  for  the 
pure  and  benevolent  impress  of  the  great  Teacher  on  the 
wild  annals  of  human  history,  must  divest  himself  of  much 
reverence  for  the  so-called  "  Church  of  Christ "  on  earth. 
The  Church  that  is  seen  and  known  of  men,  represents 
often  anything  but  His  image.  At  times  it  is  filled  with 
bigotry  and  hate ;  it  implants  persecution  in  Roman  law  ; 
it  encourages  frightful  religious  wars  ;  it  opposes  liberty  oi 
thought,  and  the  investigation  of  science  ;  its  skirts  are 
stained  with  the  blood  of  the  Inquisition,  and  wet  with 
the  tears  of  millions  of  victims  of  the  slave-trade  ;  it  en- 
courages war,  and  is  often  only  an  emblem  of  power  and 
lust  and  ambition.  Still  in  every  age  were  simple  men 
and  women,  not  known  perhaps  to  history,  or  even  to 
those  of  their  own  time,  whose  souls  and  lives  were  filled 


INTRODUCTION.-  PLAN  OF  THE    WORK.  3 

with  the  principles  of  this  new  faith.  These  gradually 
affected  social  habits  and  practices  ;  sometimes  changing 
them  before  they  influenced  legislation,  sometimes,  by  a 
favouring  public  accident,  being  able  first  to  reform  laws 
and  public  officials ;  thus,  day  by  day,  by  imperceptible 
steps  purifying  Church,  State  and  people  ;  gradually  caus- 
ing certain  great  abuses  and  wrongs  to  melt  away  before 
the  fervency  of  their  spirit,  and  the  innocence  and  bene- 
ficence of  their  lives.  These  have  been  inspired  by 
Christ.  Though  for  the  most  part  unknown  perhaps  to 
ecclesiastical  records,  or  the  historians  of  empires,  they 
have  illustrated  and  transmitted  the  divine  truths  which 
they  received  from  Him.  In  lives  of  purity  and  human 
brotherhood,  in  honesty,  faithfulness,  compassion  and  true 
humanity,  they  have  sought  to  follow  their  great  Leader. 
They  have  formed  the  true  and  invisible  "  Church  of 
Christ."  While  living  for  Him,  they  have  lived  for  the 
human  race.  Their  spirit  and  their  sacrifices  have  made  it 
possible  that  ages  hence  some  of  the  great  evils  of  man- 
kind should  come  to  an  end,  that  some  tears  should  be 
forever  wiped  away,  and  a  fair  prospect  be  held  forth  of  a 
distant  future  of  humanity,  justice  and  righteousness.  The 
victories  they  have  won  in  their  silent  struggles,  and 
bequeathed  to  us,  were  really  the  "  Gesta  CJiristi " — the 
achievements  of  Christ. 

The  first  portion  of  these  investigations  relates  to  the 
Roman  period  of  history,  when  the  great  empire,  having 
its  centre  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  controlled  the 
civilized  world.  The  object  here  is  to  trace  the  influence 
of  the  new  faith  on  the  Roman  law,  and  on  the  morals, 
habits  and  practices  of  the  Roman  people  and  provinces. 
Some  of  these  researcties  must  of  necessity  be  somewhat 
technical,  as  bearing  on  slight  changes  in  laws  relating  to 
personal  rights  and  the  succession  of  property.     They  are 


4  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

important,  however,  as  affecting  the  greater  changes  and 
reforms  which  have  since  arisen,  and  are  now  in  process  of 
development.  Others  relate  to  the  lessening  and  doing 
away  of  abuses,  so  deep-seated  and  long-continued,  that  it 
would  seem  that  nothing  but  the  power  of  a  Religion  could 
remove  them.  But  in  this  field  must  ever  be  kept  in  view 
the  power  of  a  system  of  philosophy  and  morals,  the  most 
elevated  and  noble  which  the  Greek  and  Roman  antiquity 
has  known — the  Stoical.  The  task  of  the  investigator  is 
to  trace  out  the  peculiar  working  of  the  new  Faith,  as 
distinguished  from  this  older  school  of  morals. 

The  second  division  relates  to  a  more  interesting  and 
picturesque  period  of  history — the  Middle  Ages.  Here 
the  difficulty  lies  in  condensing  and  clearing  the  great  mass 
of  material  offered,  and  here,  too,  we  stand  on  fields  fought 
over  in  incessant  discussion.  The  exact  position  of  woman 
in  the  German  tribes,  the  precise  character  of  her  Mnnd,  or 
"  Tutelage,"  what  marriage  was  with  the  ancient  Teutons, 
and  what  feminine  rights  were  in  those  wild  tribes,  are 
subjects  still  endlessly  argued  upon.  Here,  too,  in  all  the 
reforms  of  the  Middle  Ages,  whether  as  to  woman,  or 
humane  legislation,  or  checking  war,  or  abolishing  cruel 
practices,  or  doing  away  with  serfdom  and  slavery,  the 
problem  is  to  trace  the  precise  influence  of  Christianity,  as 
distinguished  from  many  other  moral  and  material  forces. 
The  only  course  in  this  investigation  seems  t(/  be  to  ex- 
amine, so  far  as  possible,  original  sources  of  evidence — codes 
3f  law,  forms  of  will,  the  canons  of  the  Church,  decrees  of 
councils,  the  words  of  ancient  historians  or  of  contem- 
porary scholars,  and  the  most  trustworthy  and  candid 
historians,  and  attempt  to  draw  the  most  probable  con- 
clusion, without  fear  or  prejudice. 

It  cannot  be  hoped  that  absolute  certainty  will  be  at- 
tained.    The  question  of  the  precise  work  accomplished  in 


INTRODUCTION.— PLAN  OF  THE   WORK.  5 

the  past  by  the  great  Teacher  of  Nazareth,  will  long  be  a 
question  of  historical  probabilities.  We  can  only  offer  to 
the  discussion,  patient  investigation,  and  the  love  of  Truth 
for  its  own  sake. 

In  the  Modern  Period,  we  enter  on  firmer  ground.  We  '-fn 
are  nearer  the  actors,  or  we  have  taken  part  in  the  events. 
In  such  matters  as  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  and  of 
slavery,  in  the  repression  of  the  duel,  in  the  improvements 
of  International  Law,  and  the  various  modern  charities  and 
reforms,  as  well  as  the  change  in  woman's  position,  we 
know  what  part  the  Faith  taught  by  Jesus  has  had,  and 
what  power  it  exerted,  and  what  it  continues  to  exert. 
Here  the  weak  point  which  strikes  the  candid  investigator, 
is  not  that  Christianity  has  done  what  it  has  in  modern 
times,  but  that  it  has  not  done  a  great  deal  more.  This, 
too,  must  be  considered  in  the  argument. 

And,  though  not  demanded  by  the  investigation,  a  brief 
comparison  of  humane  progress  under  this  Religion,  and 
under  the  highest  beliefs  among  modern  non-Christian 
peoples,  will  strengthen  the  conclusion. 

We  offer  the  investigation  to  all  lovers  of  truth.  No 
friend  of  humanity  will  hesitate  to  rejoice,  should  it  in- 
directly serve  to  strengthen  the  ancient  Hope  and  Faith 
of  the  leading  races  of  mankind. 


I. 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  ON   THE   LAWS, 

PRACTICES  AND  INSTITUTIONS  Of 

THE  ROMAN  PERIOD. 


CHAPTER    II. 


PATERNAL   POWER. 


What  may  be  called  the  "  natural  progress  "  of  mankind 
under  the  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit  and  the  instincts 
implanted  in  the  human  mind,  is  towards  respect  for  the 
individual  and  towards  self-control,  in  the  preference  of 
the  higher  and  distant  good  to  the  lower  and  present. 
Our  plan  in  the  beginning  of  this  investigation  is  to  make 
plain  the  stimulus  given  to  this  progress  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  by  the  new  system  of  ideas  and  the  new  forces 
thrown  into  the  world  through  the  Christian  Religion. 
The  improvements  thus  caused  or  hastened  have  been  at 
the  basis  of  all  modern  civilization  and  progress,  and, 
though  often  apparently  slight,  are  such  as  will  influence 
all  future  history. 

One  remarkable  archaic  institution  survived  and  was 
transmitted  through  successive  ages  of  Roman  history 
before  and  after  Christianity — the  primitive  paternal 
authority.  It  was  thought  by  Roman  legal  writers,  even 
ar;  late  as  the  time  of  the  Pandects,^  to  be  peculiar  to  the 
Romans.  But  modern  investigation  shows  that  it  belongs 
to  nearly  all  races  in  a  certain  stage  of  development,  and 
that  the  Germanic  tribes  who  overwhelmed  the  Romans, 
had,  many  of  them,  carried  it  to  an  extreme  degree.  In 
the  father's  house,  the  Roman  father  had  absolute  authority 
over  the  son  ;    he  could  chastise,   put  in  chains,  exile  or 

'  Jus  potestatis  quod  in  liberos  habemus,  proprium  est  civium 
Romanorum.     {Instit.,  lib.  I.,  tit.  ix.     Pand.^  I.,  tit  vi.  vii.) 

9 


10  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

sell  him  as  a  slave ;  he  had  power  of  life  and  death  over 
him.  The  son's  property  became  the  father's  ;  he  could 
assign  a  wife  to  him,  divorce  him  when  married,  or  trans- 
fer him  to  another  family  by  "  adoption."  The  son  only 
escaped  and  was  "  emancipated  "^  by  a  sale  of  his  person, 
three  times  repeated,  by  his  father.  This  custom,  origin- 
ally designed  to  control  parental  greed,  became  used  as  a 
fictitious  legal  form  for  freeing  the  son.  The  son  in  a  legal 
view  seemed  worse  off  than  the  slave :  the  latter,  if  formally 
emancipated,  was  finally  free ;  the  former  reverted  to  his 
previous  condition  under  his  father,  and  in  early  ages 
required  this  triple  form  for  entire  freedom. 

The  power  of  life  and  death  was  not  a  legal  fiction. 
Three  different  Romans  of  position,  Cassius,  Scaurus,  and 
Fulvius  are  mentioned  by  Valerius  Maximus^  as  having 
been  executed  by  their  father ;  and  another  son  was 
banished  by  his  father,  Titus  Avius.  Seneca^  relates  that 
the  populace  pursued  with  daggers,  on  the  public  square, 
a  knight  (Erixon)  who  had  scourged  his  son  to  death  ; 
an  act  legal,  but  held  to  be  too  severe.  The  right  of  a 
father  to  kill  a  daughter  taken  in  adultery  was  universally 
conceded.  Cicero  appears  to  admit  a  right  of  life  and 
death  even  in  case  of  an  adopted  son.*  He  alludes  to  it  as 
a  recognised  right  in  regard  to  a  real  son.^ 

Manlius    is   said    to   have    put    his   own    son,    though 

'  A  son  thrice  sold  by  his  father,  was  free  from  his  power ;  after  this 
form  he  became  emancipatus,  or  sold  out  of  his  family.  In  a  similar 
manner,  another  son  could  be  bought  in  from  another  family,  or 
adopted.     See  Ulpian,  tit.  x.  "  Qui  in  potestate,  etc." 

2   Val.  Max.,  v.  8. 

*  De  Cletn.,  12,  14.     Populus  in  foro  graphiis  confodit. 

*  .  .  .  Vi'ae  nccisque  potestatem  habere  ut  in  filio,  erat.  (Pro 
Do  mo,  29.) 

*  Patrem  tuum  civem  optimum,  clarissimi  viri  filium  :  qui,  si  viverat, 
quA  severitate  fuit,  profecto  non  viveris.     {Pro  Domo,  c.  32.) 


INSTANCES  OF  PATERNAL    TYRANNY.  11 

victorious,  to  death   for    disobeying^  orders  ;  and  Cassius 
Brutus  killed  a  son  who  had  negotiated  with  the  enemy.^ 

A  Latin  historian^  says,  "  One  has  seen  fathers  author- 
ised by  law,  drag  their  children  from  the  tribune  while 
they  were  addressing  the  people,  in  order  to  punish  them 
at  their  discretion.  They  were  dragged  across  the  public 
square  and  no  one  dared  defend  them.  The  consul,  the 
tribune  of  the  people,  in  fine  the  people  itself,  so  proud 
of  its  power  and  force,  who  came  to  applaud  them  were 
obliged  to  keep  silent,  and  respect  in  the  fathers,  an 
authority  which  the  law  gave  them." 

At  the  close  of  the  republic,  the  Lex  Pompeia  de  Parric, 
or  the  law  in  regard  to  the  murder  of  relatives  by 
relatives,  is  silent  with  respect  to  the  murder  of  a  child 
by  the  father. 

It  is  related  that  the  Emperor  Augustus  was  present  as 
witness  and  judge  in  a  family-council  which  a  father  had 
assembled  to  decide  on  the  fate  of  a  son,  guilty  of  pur- 
poses of  parricide.  The  Emperor  Trajan  is  said  to  have 
"  emancipated "  a  son,  because  the  father  violated  the 
duties  of  paternal  affection.  And  an  ancient  authority 
approves  the  sentence  which  had  deprived  the  father  of 
the  succession  of  a  deceased  son,  thus  emancipated.'*  Even 
the  Stoical  jurist,  Paul,  seems  to  recognise  the  right  of  a 
father  to  sell  his  son  in  case  of  great  need  and  poverty.^ 

The  paternal  power  existed  also  over  the  person  of  the 
daughter. 

This  deeply-rooted  institution  was  grafted  throughout 
the  world  wherever  Roman  citizenship  extended,  though 
often  modified  and   humanized.     The  spirit  of  humanity, 

»  Liv.,  vii.  7.  ^  Pltit-  (P  Gr.  et  Rom.). 

»  Den.  H.  (AnL  Rom.,  2,  26).  ■•  Di^.  Pap. 

•  Qui  contemplatiDne  extremae  necessitatis  aut  alimentorum  gratii, 
filios  suos  vendiderint,  etc.    (^Sent.,  v.  i,  i.) 


13  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

especially  under  Stoical  influences,  worked  upon  it  through 
all  periods  of  the  Republic  and  the  Empire.  No  student 
of  history  can  ever  cease  to  be  grateful  for  the  profound 
moral  power  which  went  forth  from  the  Stoical  school 
in  antiquity. 

But  under  the  Christian  emperors,  whatever  may  have 
been  their  individual  characters,  a  great  and  marked 
change  shows  itself  in  this  custom  and  the  legislation 
upon  it.  A  new  idea  had  entered  all  classes  as  to  the 
rights  and  personality  of  each  individual,  whether  child  or 
parent.  When  the  son  was  recognised  as  the  child  of  God 
and  "  joint  heir  with  Christ,"  equal  with  his  father  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  Lord,  for  whom  Christ  had  died,  paternal 
tyranny  could  not  long  continue.  The  change  did  not  at 
once  show  itself  in  legislation  ;  society  is  usually  reformed 
before  laws :  but  that  elevation  of  each  person  began 
which,  after  many  ages,  must  result  in  absolute  emanci- 
pation and  equality  of  rights. 

The  learned  commentator  on  the  Theodosian  Code  saw 
at  once  the  source  of  the  reforms  which  appear  in  that 
legislation.  "  It  is  Christian  discipline,"  says  Godefroy, 
in  regard  to  the  Roman  law,  "  which  gradually  softens  the 
severity  of  paternal  authority,"  ^ 

The  spirit  of  humanity  as  expressed  in  the  thoughts 
and  legislation  of  the  Stoical  jurists,  laboured  steadily 
to  mitigate  this  authority  through  many  centuries.  The. 
words  of  the  jurist  Marcian  were  quoted  even  by  thoso 
who  had  absolute  power  over  the  lives  of  the  children  : 

**  Paternal  power  ought  to  rest  in  affection,  not  in 
atrocity."  ' 

•  Christiana  disciplina  paulatim  patriae  potestatis  duritiem  emol- 
liente.   (De  Maternis  bonis.     Inst.,  248.) 

2  Nam  patria  potestas  in  pietate  debet,  non  in  atrocitate,  consistere. 
{^Marc.  Inst.,  lib.  xiv.  ;  Pand.,  xlviii.  9,  5.) 

Adrian  used  these  words  on  a  remarkable  occasion  when  tho 
punishiaent  of  a  son  was  softened. 


JUSTINIAN'S  REFORMS.  13 

Constantine  (333  A.D.)  was  as  far  removed  from  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  as  possible  in  his  character,  but  his 
legislation,  framed  by  men  feeling  the  new  power  in  the 
world,  shows  the  humane  forces  derived  from  this  faith. 
He  ventured  to  punish  as  a  parricide,  a  father  killing  his 
son.i  Under  Justinian  (528  A.D.)  the  Christian  influences 
are  more  distinctly  felt,  and  the  father  could  only  inflict 
moderate  penalties,  and  summon  his  children  before  the 
courts,  where  he  could  suggest  such  sentence  as  might 
be  appropriate  to  domestic  discipline.  He  could  also 
disinherit.  The  mitigations  in  regard  to  the  son's  pro- 
perty were  of  gradual  growth.  At  first,  all  his  earnings 
and  possessions  belonged  to  the  father.  The  humane 
spirit  step  by  step  protected  him,  and  obtained  for  him 
more  individual  rights.  Certain  portions  of  his  property, 
acquired  in  specific  modes,  were  secured  to  him.  But 
it  was  only  under  Constantine  and  the  early  Christian 
emperors  that  the  son's  rights  of  property  were  extended 
to  acquisitions  made  in  a  great  variety  of  public  and 
religious  offices.  He  was  not  yet  on  a  plane  of  legal 
equality  with  his  father,  but  his  position  approached  the 
modern  position  under  the  laws  of  Christian  nations. 

Under  the  former  ideas  of  the  paternal  tyranny,  the 
father  claimed  as  a  right  all  the  property  of  the  deceased 
ancestors  of  the  family,  or  of  the  mother,  if  they  died 
intestate,  and  of  his  own  children  deceased.  The  laws  of 
the  Christian  emperors  gradually  converted  these  rights 
of  the  Roman  father  into  what  are  almost  the  rights  of 
the  modern  father.  He  becomes  only  one  of  the  heirs  of 
property  thus  left ;  and  his  interests  are  made  inferior 
to  those  of  the  minor  children.    The  peculiar  distinction  of 

'  Cod.  Theod.,  De  Parricid. ;  et  yust.,  De  his  qui  parentes,  etc 
(c.  ix,  17,  I.) 


i4  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

the  new  power  in  the  world  was  the  protection  it  afforded 
to,  and  the  interest  it  showed  in,  the  child. 

The  property  of  children  who  came  under  the  power  of 
a  father  by  marriage,  was  especially  protected  from  his 
claims.  The  mother  was  shielded  in  her  rights ;  and  her 
property,  if  she  died  intestate,  descended  at  length  to  her 
children.  The  modern  conditions  of  inheritance  appear 
even  under  Constantine.  The  son,  however,  could  not 
yet  sell,  mortgage,  or  bequeath  by  will  his  own  property. 
Under  the  new  ideas,  Justinian  ^  gave  to  the  son  full 
control  over  all  his  acquisitions.  In  the  new  light  spread 
through  the  world,  it  seemed  to  him  "  inhuman  "  to  do 
otherwise.  The  father  had  only  a  life-interest  in  his  son's 
acquisitions  or  property,  unless  they  were  derived  from 
his  own.  In  case  of  "  emancipation,"  he  was  allowed 
a  life-interest  of  one-half.  The  father  could  still  dis- 
inherit. 

These  changes  in  Roman  law  relating  to  paternal  power 
after  Christianity  became  a  power  in  the  world,  may  seem 
to  the  modern  reader  of  no  great  account.  But  the  differ- 
ence between  the  father's  power  under  the  old  Roman  law 
and  that  under  Justinian,  measures  the  difference  between 
the  old  and  the  modern  world.  The  tyrant  of  the  family 
has  merely  become  the  judge,  or  indeed  little  more  than 
the  modern  father.  He  cannot  "  expose,"  buy  or  sell,  or 
imprison  his  son  (except  through  the  agency  of  the  courts), 
or  abuse  or  kill  him  ;  he  cannot  adopt  him  into  another 
family  without  his  consent,  or  give  him  by  force  in  mar- 
riage, but  is  only  permitted  to  declare  a  veto  on  a  marriage 
which  is  not  agreeable  to  him. 

The  drift  of  modern  opinion  and  practice  is  towards  the 
independence  of  the  child,   both    social  and    legal.      The 

'  Just.,  lib.  II.  tit.  ix.  Per  quas  personas.  De  bonis  quae  liberis,  etc 
Quod  nobis  inhutnanum  visum  est 


SUCCESSION  OF  PROPERTY.  Z$ 

authority  of  the  father  is  becoming  more  and  more  one  of 
affection  and  of  moral  influence.  Paternal  tyranny,  even 
in  the  most  private  matters  of  the  family,  is  passing  away. 
The  beginning  of  this  great  change  was  in  the  reforms  of 
Roman  law  under  the  teachings  which  came  forth  from 
Judea. 

Succession.— To  understand  these  reforms  still  further, 
we  must  consider  a  subject  somewhat  technical,  but  im- 
portant as  affecting  modern  society — the  bearing  of  the 
paternal  power  upon  relationship  and  the  transmission  of 
property. 

The  family  was  for  ages  in  Rome  (as  in  many  other 
countries)   an  iiuperium  in  imperio,  and  it  could  only  be 
maintained  thus   by  limiting  relationship  to  descendants 
by  males,  or  to  "  agnates"     If  a  married  daughter  were 
considered  a  member  of  the  family,  with  equal  rights  to 
property  and  protection,  it  is  manifest  that  great  confusion 
would  arise  and  conflicting  interests  be  introduced  in  the 
family.     From  this  principle  arose  much  injustice  to  the 
woman.     The  relatives  by  males  were  the  persons  said  to 
be  especially  "  in  power  "  {in  inamt),  or  in  the  family,  of  the 
father,  though  he  was  permitted  to  introduce  others  into  the 
family  by  adoption.     Without  enlarging  upon  this  import- 
ant topic,  we  would  only  say  that  under  the  old  Roman 
law    the   succession    of    property    followed   the   bond    of 
"  power,"  and  was  determined  by  family,  not  blood.     One 
could  be  a  near  relative  of  a  deceased  person,  even  a  child, 
without  being  an  heir.     The  son   "  emancipated  "  by  the 
father  was  no  longer  in  the  family,  and  was  not  an  heir. 
The  heirs  were  especially  the  children  or  grandchildren 
who  were  in    the   family ;  they  might   even  be  adopted, 
but  they  are  still  first  heirs.     Daughters  "  in  the  family  " 
succeed  like  males  ;  there  is  under  this  archaic  system  no 
primogeniture  or  inferiority  of  sex.     The  wife  not  married 


i6  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

out  of  the  family  is  like  a  daughter  and  heir  ;  the  wife  of  a 
son  (himself  in  "the  family  ")  is  also  an  heir  and  in  power. 
These  are  called  "heirs  of  themselves"^  or  "necessary 
heirs,"  continuing  the  person  of  the  father.  When  there 
are  no  necessary  heirs,  then  comes  in  the  nearest  agnate  or 
relative  by  males,  who  would  be  "  in  power  "  if  his  ancestor 
were  living.  "  Emancipation "  or  separation  from  the 
family  breaks  this  relation,  so  that  the  direct  descendants 
of  an  emancipated  son  do  not  succeed  any  more  than  do 
the  descendants  by  married  females. 

Reforms  in  this  as  in  other  directions  of  the  paternal 
power  began  under  Stoical  influences ;  but  under  the 
Christian  emperors  there  was,  as  might  be  expected,  a 
more  decided  drift  towards  the  natural  bonds  of  succession. 
The  influence  of  the  new  Faith  was  everywhere  to  protect 
woman,  and  to  give  her  equal  rights,  whether  in  the  family 
or  out  of  it.  Valentinian  the  Younger  had  enacted  that 
the  children  of  the  daughter  (who  had  been  legally  out- 
side of  the  family)  sliould  succeed  to  the  maternal  *  grand- 
father with  the  "  necessary  heirs,"  and  that  they  should 
receive  two-thirds  of  what  would  have  fallen  to  their 
mother.  Constantine,  whose  legislation  is  touched  by  the 
new  spirit,  goes  still  further.  He  provides  in  certain  cases 
that  she  should  take  from  the  agnates,  their  children  and 
grandchildren,  one-third  of  their  succession,  excluding  all 
other  agnates.  With  Justinian  (528  A.D.)  came  more  of 
the  force  of  the  new  religion  upon  the  law  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  The  reforms  of  his  code  struck  deeper.  The 
great  codifiers  who  prepared  his  body  of  laws,  seemed  to 

*  Sui  hseredes  {hist.,  lib.  II.  t.  xix).  Nov.,  164.  Gains,  lib.  II.  t.  x. 
De  intest.  hasred.  (De  Agnatis).  One  of  the  reforms  in  succession 
Justinian  alludes  to  as  "actionem  Deo  placer teni,"  as  if  feeling  the 
religious  motive. 

3/«j/.,  lib.  III.  tit  L 


REFORMS  IN  JUSTINIAN'S  CODE.  17 

teel,  and  even  in  their  dry  labour  to  be  elevated,  by 
the  fresh  "  enthusiasm  of  humanity  "  working  in  the  world. 
They  often  speak  of  such  and  such  a  measure  as  "in- 
human." ^  Justinian's  code  enacted  that  the  children  of  the 
daughter  should  represent  their  mother  entirely,  as  if  she 
were  in  the  family.  It  does  away  with  all  distinctions 
of  being  "  in  the  family  "  or  outside  of  it,  or  those  derived 
from  the  number  of  children  {j7is  liberoniin)  of  a  woman, 
and  established  that  those  who  had  one  as  well  as  those 
with  four  children,  whether  "  in  power "  or  emancipated, 
were  called  equally  to  the  succession  of  their  deceased 
children.  It  preferred  the  mother  to  all  the  agnates  or 
relatives  by  the  males  ;  all  were  excluded  by  her  ;  the  only 
competitors  being  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  deceased. 
The  natural  relatives,  or  cognates,  were  made  equal  to  the 
relatives  by  the  males  or  agnates.  The  new  code  abolished 
all  distinctions  between  agnates  and  cognates.  The 
bond  of  "power"  disappeared  before  the  bond  of  blood. 
Paternal  authority  lost  its  pre-eminence.  Property  re- 
verted to  the  natural  descendants  of  the  deceased,  whether 
"  in  power  "  or  of  their  own  right,  whether  "  emancipated  " 
or  not,  without  distinction  of  sex  or  degree,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  all  other  relatives.  The  masculine  and  feminine 
lines  are  equal.  The  drift  of  these  reforms  is  towards 
equality  of  rights  between  women  and  men,  or  between 
different  members  of  the  same  family,  so  far  as  succession 
is  concerned.  The  children  of  the  daughter  separated 
from  her  family  by  marriage,  or  of  the  mother  who 
from  some  form  of  marriage  had  never  been  considered 
as  belonging  to  the  family,  and  the  mother  and  sister 
who  had  been  excluded  by  "  emancipation  "  were  placed 

•  Quod  nobis  inhumanum  visum  est,  et  liberis  pepercimus,  et  patri- 
bus  debitum  reservavimus.     (Jnst,,  lib.  II,  tit.  ix.) 

a 


i8  GESTA   CHRIS  TI. 

before  the  relatives  by  males  of  a  distant  degree.  Even 
the  male  and  female  children  by  a  mother  from  a  former 
marriage  ("  uterine  "  children)  were  placed  on  an  equality 
with  the  other  heirs.^  All  these  with  the  female  descendants 
of  male  heirs  and  sisters  shared  equally  in  the  inheritance. 
These  reforms  in  the  Roman  law  may  seem  to  the 
modern  student  of  little  importance.  But  they  are  an  in- 
dication of  the  tendency  everywhere  of  the  Christian  Faith 
to  introduce  equality  of  rights  among  persons,  to  elevate 
the  individual,  to  control  arbitrary  power,  to  substitute 
self-command,  consideration  and  the  influence  of  the 
affections  for  tyranny  and  unchecked  power  in  the  family. 
They  were  apparently  but  small  advances ;  they  had, 
it  is  true,  been  begun  by  Stoicism  ;  but  they  received 
their  greatest  stimulus  from  Christianity,  and  properly 
heralded  the  greater  and  more  profound  changes  which 
the  new  Faith  was  to  introduce  into  modern  society. 


NOTE    ON  CHAPTER  II. 

De  Consang.  et  uterin.  frat.     (Col.  VI.  t.  xii.    Nov.  wyixv.) 

De  Desc.  succ.  {N^ov.  cxviii.)  cap.  20.  De  Asc.  succ.  De  succ.  ex. 
etc.,  cap.  iii.  De  Agn.,  etc.,  cap.  18.  Sed  in  omnibus  successionibus 
agnatorum,  cognatorumque  differentiam  vocare  prsecipimus,  etc.  {Nov. 
118.) 

De  legit,  tut.  cap.  iv. 

Et  quoniam  mater  excludebatur  quidem  a  filio  masculo  .  .  .  nos 
non  quterentes  filiorum  jus,  sed  exinde  ei  legitima  jura  dant,  etc 
(Col.  IV.  t.  i.     Nov.  22.) 

Nulla  introducenda  differentia,  sive  masculi,  sive  foeminas  sint  et 
seu  ex  masculorum  seu  feminarum  prole  descendant,  sive  sua:  potes- 
tatis  sint  constitute     (Col.  IV.  t.  i.  Nov.  108.) 

Just.,  lib.  III.  tit.  ii. 

'  Troplong.  Linfluetice  du  Christianisme  sur  le  Droit  Remain, 
Inst,  jftisiifi.,  Bandar's  note,  lib.  III.  tit.  iv. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   POSITION   OF  WOMAN    UNDER    ROMAN  LAW, 

It  was  a  necessary  part  of  the  archaic  institution  of  the 
family,  that  woman  should  be  under  the  perpetual  tutelage 
of  her  relatives  by  males ;  the  object  being  to  keep  her 
property  in  the  family  and  to  separate  her  from  public 
affairs.  Under  the  old  Roman  law,  such  of  her  property  as 
was  inancipii} — land,  slaves  and  beasts  of  burden, — could 
not  be  disposed  of  without  consent  of  her  tutor.  But  she 
could  not  intervene  in  the  government  of  the  family,  nor  in 
industrial  or  commercial  affairs,  nor  in  public  matters.  A 
court  of  her  relatives  could  inflict  upon  her  the  severest 
penalties  in  case  of  certain  offences.  In  the  time  of  Nero, 
a  distinguished  Roman  lady,  Pomponia  Graecina,  wife  of 
Aulus  Plautius,  first  conqueror  of  Britain,  was  accused  of  a 
"  foreign  superstition."  She  was  submitted  to  the  judg- 
ment of  her  husband.  Aulus  assembled  the  relatives,  and, 
after  an  examination,  he  declared  her  innocent.  There  is 
much  probability  that  this  lady,  one  of  the  last  instances 
of  the  extreme  exercise  of  the  marital  power,  was  one  of 
the  first  secret  converts  to  Christianity.^     As  a  mother,  the 

*  Perhaps,  in  its  origin,  such  property  as  was  "  taken  by  hand,"  but 
later,  such  objects  as  were  transferred  by  the  ceremony  of  "  manci- 
pation."    {Ulpian.  tit.  xix.  i.) 

Majores  nostri,  nullam,  ne  privatam  quidem  rem  agere  feminas  sine 
auctore  voluerunt ;  in  manu  esse  parentum,  fratnun  virorum.  (Cato's 
Speech.     Livy,  34,  2.) 

•  Tac  A?iu.,  xiii.  32.    Agrt'c,  4. 

19 


30  GESTA    CHRISTl. 

Roman  woman  had  originally  no  legal  irheritance  in  the 
property  of  her  minor  children.  A  child  desiring  to  marry 
need  not  obtain  her  consent ;  the  children  were  not  in  the 
family  of  the  mother  but  of  the  father  ;  the  mother  had 
no  power  over  them.  As  a  wife,  the  husband  had,  under 
old  Roman  law,  power  of  life  and  death  over  her,  and 
absolute  control  of  her  property.  When  she  passed  in 
manum — into  the  power — of  her  husband,  she  became  not 
his  equal,  but  his  adopted  daughter  or  ward.  The  law 
considered  her  as  a  sister  of  her  own  children  ;  all  her 
property  became  that  of  her  husband  ;  all  her  earnings 
were  his.  Like  children  and  slaves,  she  was  not,  while 
in  viaii7i,  a  person  in  her  own  right.  She  lost  all  her 
family  rights,  and  her  agnates  were  deprived  of  their  rights 
of  tutelage  or  of  succession  to  whatever  of  her  property 
would  revert  to  them. 

The  great  object  of  these  legal  arrangements  was  un- 
doubtedly to  preserve  the  woman's  property  in  certain 
families.  Yet  there  was  underlying  them  a  deep  contempt 
for  woman,  utterly  foreign  to  the  new  Faith,  but  familiar 
to  the  Stoical  school.  Thus  Gaius  gives  as  the  ground  for 
the  tutelage  of  woman,  her  "  levity  of  mind  ";  ^  and  Cicero 
in  like  manner,  explains  it  as  due  to  her  "infirmity  of  pur- 
pose." * 

The  three  ancient  forms  of  Roman  marriage,  the  con- 
farrcation,^  or  religious  ceremony ;  the  co-emption,*  or  civil 
contract ;  and  the  tisus,  or  intercourse,  all  gave  the  husband 
most  of  these  rights  over  the  wife.     But  side  by  side  with 

'  Veteres  enim  voluerunt  feminas  etiam  si  perfectje  setatis  sint 
propter  animi  levitatem  in  tutela  esse.     {Gains,  Comm.  i,  144.) 

^  Mulieres  omnes,  propter  infirmitatem  consilii,  majo^es  in  tutorum 
potestate  esse  voluerunt.     {Cic.  pro  Mtiren.) 

•  The  eating  of  a  cake  oi/ar,  or  rice,  together, 

*  The  form  of  purchase. 


FREE  MARRIAGE.  ai 

the  ancient  marriage,  sprang  up  another  form,  of  "  Free 
marriage," — a  re-action  from  the  former  and  in  the  interest 
of  the  woman,  as  that  had  been  entirely  in  favour  of  the 
man.  It  was  recognised  by  law,  and  produced  legitimate 
children,  though  not  always  held  as  a  respectable  con« 
nection.  Under  it  the  children  were  submitted  to  the 
"  paternal  power,"  and  the  woman  lived  with  her  husband, 
but  she  possessed  her  own  property,  worshipped  her  own 
gods,  and  was  still  connected  with  her  own  family.  There 
was,  under  this  form,  entire  separation  of  property  between 
husband  and  wife,  and  they  could  even  bring  a  civil  action 
against  one  another  in  the  courts.  Such  a  wife  was  called 
uxor  and  iiiatrona,  while  under  the  old  marriage  she  en- 
joyed the  proud  title  of  mater-familias.  The  old  form 
of  usus  became  changed  into  this  form  whenever  a  wife 
absented  herself  for  at  least  three  nights. 

Thus,  in  Rome,  there  were  two  extremes  in  the  history 
of  marriage  ;  the  excessive  power  of  the  husband  under 
the  ancient  form,  and  too  great  laxity  under  the  new. 
This  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  considering  the  peculiar 
influence  of  Christian  teachings  upon  the  Roman  law.  By 
the  second  century  after  Christ,  iistis  and  usiicapio  had 
disappeared  as  a  rite  by  which  the  husband  acquired  his 
wife  as  a  thing.  "  Confarreation  "  (the  religious  marriage) 
was  only  practised  by  families  who  discharged  certain 
pontifical  offices,  and  where  this  marriage  was  required 
as  a  condition  of  the  children  entering  on  these  duties. 
"  Co-ewption  "  became  the  principal  form  for  acquiring  the 
absolute  marital  power.  But  "  Free  marriage  "  grew  to  be 
more  and  more  the  custom.  Its  effects  on  the  rights  of 
property  in  the  woman  were  very  marked.  Under  the  old 
marriage,  the  woman  in  maim  had  nothing,  could  earn 
nothing,  and  own  nothing.  If  the  husband  died,  she 
divided  the  inheritance  as  one  heir  among  the  children ; 


29  GESTA   CHRISTI, 

if  there  were  no  children,  she  was  sole  heir  like  a  daughter, 
If  she  died  first,  the  husband  took  everything,  even  the 
property  which  she  had  brought  to  the  marriage.  In  Free 
marriage  arose  the  dos  for  a  daughter ;  that  is,  the  father 
and  daughter  were  bound  to  aid  in  the  expenses  of  the 
future  family.  The  Julian  Law  made  it  obligatory  on 
fathers  and  the  paternal  ancestors  to  dower  their  daughters. 
The  dos  was  acquired  by  the  husband,  and  united  with  his 
fortune  ;  he  could  alienate  it,  and  even  bring  an  action 
against  his  wife  for  objects  in  the  dos,  and,  at  her  death,  he 
was  not  obliged  to  restore  it  to  her  heirs. 

With  Christianity,  naturally  came  in  a  new  conception 
of  the  position  of  woman.  Her  relation  to  her  husband 
was  gradually  changed,  and,  step  by  step,  these  disabili- 
ties or  disadvantages  disappeared.  The  husband  was  first 
obliged  to  restore  the  dos  to  his  father-in-law,  solatii  loco, 
as  a  solace  at  her  death.  In  case  of  her  husband's  death, 
she  was  permitted  to  demand  from  his  heirs  what  she  had 
brought  in  dos.  And  finally,  dotes  were  guaranteed  to  the 
widow. 

But  the  spirit  of  the  new  times  was  especially  expressed 
in  the  Code  of  Justinian.  "  It  is  worthy  of  the  chastity  of 
our  times,"  ^  say  the  Institutes,  "to  give  this  new  position 
to  women  ;  tutelage  of  women  must  be  done  away  with."  ^ 
The  dos  must  always  be  restored  at  the  dissolution  of  mar- 
riage ;  the  husband  was  to  have  only  a  temporary  limited 
interest  in  it  ;  it  was  inalienable  even  by  consent  of  the 
wife.  She  even  had  a  legal  mortgage  over  all  the  immov- 
able property  of  her  husband  to  guarantee  its  restitution.* 
The  absolute  power  of  the  husband  ceased  under  Justi« 
nian's  laws. 

*  Dignum  castitate  nostorum  temporum,  etc     {Jtist.  lib.  I.  tit.  xii.) 

'  Pupilli,  pupillasque  cum  puberes  esse  coeperint,  tuteld  liberarentur 

•  Inst.,  lib.  I.  tit  xxii.     Lib.  II.  tit  viil 


DIVORCE.  23 

This  great  code,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  fervent 
humanity  taught  by  the  new  Faith,  made  one  great  step 
in  this  important  reform,  which  is  at  length  to  give 
woman  entire  equality  of  rights  under  the  law. 

The  tendency  towards  "  the  personal  and  proprietary 
independence "  of  women  in  modern  law  and  custom 
received  its  first  great  stimulus  in  the  religion  of  Jesus 
affecting  Roman  law. 

The  mother  acquires  also  under  this  code  equal  rights 
with  the  father  over  the  succession  of  deceased  children  ; 
she  becomes  their  legal  tutor,  and  presides  over  the  choice 
of  a  husband  for  the  daughter.  If  the  husband  unjustly 
repudiates  her,  she  receives  full  paternal  power.  ^  This 
is  the  beginning  of  that  advance  in  the  legal  position 
of  the  mother,  which  has  culminated  in  modern  legisla- 
tion.^ 

Divorce. — The  "  Free  marriage  "  naturally  gave  rise  to  the 
utmost  freedom  of  divorce.  Separation  could  be  legally 
caused  by  either  party,  by  a  desire  to  divorce  expressed  in 
writing  {libeliiim  repudii).  Women  made  use  of  this  even 
more  than  men.  At  the  close  of  the  Republic  the  licence 
was  frightful.  Augustus  attempted  in  vain  to  struggle  with 
it  by  legal  enactments.  The  Julian  Law  deprived  women 
of  their  dos  who  provoked  divorce,  but  without  effect. 
Seneca  speaks  of  "  quotidiana  repudia^'  daily  divorces,  and 
in  another  well-known  passage,  of  the  illustrious  and  noble- 
born  women  who  reckon  their  years  not  by  the  number 
of  the  consuls,  but  by  that  of  their  husbands.'  Juvenal's 
epigram    is   well-known,    of    the   woman   who   had   eight 

'  C.  Theod.,  v.  4,  5.     Nov.,  117,  c.  7. 

•  See  chapter  of  this  work  on  "  Position  of  Woman  under  Modem 
Influence." 

'  .  .  .  Non  consulum  numero  sed  maritorum,  annos  suos  compu« 
Umt.     (De  Ben.,  iii.  15.) 


24  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

husbands  in  five  years.^  Martial  says :  "  who  marries  so 
often,  marries  not  all ;  -  she  is  but  an  adulteress  "  ;  Tacitus 
speaks  of  "  magna  adulteria  "  of  the  time,  and  later,  Ter- 
tullian  ^  represents  divorce  as  the  very  purpose  and  end 
of  Roman  marriage.  Vice  among  Roman  families  had 
reached  its  lowest  depths  during  the  first  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era.  The  Roman  senate  in  the  year  19  A.D.  was 
obliged  to  pass  an  act,  that  no  woman  whose  grandfather 
or  husband  had  been  a  Roman  knight  was  permitted  to 
make  her  person  venal.*  A  lady,  whose  father  had  been 
of  Praetorian  rank,  had  appeared  before  the  .^diles  to 
make  a  public  profession  of  lewdness. 

Even  before  this,  the  more  strict  Romans  had  felt 
keenly  the  degradation  of  woman.  Porcius  Cato,  in  the 
year  558  of  the  city,  had  reproached  women  from  the 
tribune  for  their  desires  for  liberty  and  even  licence  in 
everything,^  and  for  so  much  neglecting  the  "  right  and 
dignity  of  the  man "  (j'/is  majestatenique  viri).  Juvenal 
might  well  say  that  no  crime  or  deed  of  lust  was  wanting 
to  that  age  ^ : — "  the  age  of  iron,"  "^  where  the  good  were 
indeed  few.'  Even  the  calm  philosophers,  like  Seneca,  felt 
the  deep  depravity  of  the  time.  Woman  he  stigmatizes 
as  a  foolish,  wild  creature,  unable  to  control  her  lusts.  • 


••  Sic  crescit  numerus,  sic  fiunt  octo  mariti, 

Quinque  per  autumnos.     {^Sat.  vi.) 
'  Quae  nubit  toties,  non  nubit  ;  adultera  lege  est.     {Ep.  vi.  7). 
^  Repudium  jam  et  votum  est,  quasi  matrimonii  fructus.  {Apol.  c.  vi.) 

•  .     .     .    ne    qua^stum    corpore  facerit,   aut   maritus    eques    Ro- 
;nanus  fuisset.     {Tac.  Aim.,  2,  83). 

•  Omnium  rerum  libertatem,  imo  licentiam  desiderant. 

•  Nullum  crimen  abest,  facinus  que  libidinis,  ex  quo 

Paupertas  Romana  perit.     {Sat.  vi.  223.) 
'  Nunc  aotas  agitur,  pejoraque  saacula  ferri.     (xiii.  29.) 

•  Rari  quippe  boni.     (xiii.  25.) 

'  Animal imprudens,ferum,cupiditatumimpatiens.  {DeConst.Safi.  14^ 


INSTANCES  IN  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD.  2$ 

Paulus  vEmilius,  when  he  discarded  the  beautiful  Papyria, 
only  deigned  to  say,  "  My  shoes  are  new  and  well-made, 
but  no  one  knows  where  they  pinch  me."  ^ 

Seneca  speaks  of  Maecenas  as  having  "married  a  thousand 
times."  ^  C.  Sulp.  Gallus  is  said  to  have  repudiated  his 
wife  because  he  had  seen  her  abroad  with  head  un- 
covered. ^ 

Modesty  was  held  to  be  a  presumption  of  ugliness.*  A 
correspondent  of  Cicero  in  one  of  his  letters  casually  men- 
tions, as  an  item  of  news,  a  divorce  without  cause  (sine 
causa)  of  one  Paula  Valeria,  who  announced  to  her  husband 
on  his  return  from  a  journey  that  she  was  separated  from 
him  and  was  about  to  marry  Dec.  Brutus.^  Cicero  himself 
repudiated  his  wife  Terentia  in  order  to  escape  his  creditors, 
by  giving  up  to  them  the  dos  of  his  new  wife,  Publilia, 
whom  again  he  afterwards  repudiated. 

It  is  possible  that  we  may  exaggerate  the  depravity 
of  these  times,  and  judge  too  much  from  the  epigrams  of 
satirists  and  the  condensed  phrases  of  historians,  still  such 
legislation  as  we  have  quoted  from  Tacitus  is  a  kind  of 
evidence  not  easily  to  be  overthrown.^  It  should  not  be 
forgotten,  however,  that  intellectually  the  Roman  woman 
must  have  received  much  training  in  the  first  two  centuries, 
through  the  great  number  of  secret  associations  existing. 
The  burial  inscriptions  show  that  she  bore  an  important 
part  in  these,  and  even  held  office  in  some  of  the  munici- 


»  P/uf.  Vit.  P.  jEtn. 

'  Qui  uxorem  millies  ducit. 

»  Val.  Max.  (vi.  3,  10).    De  Prov.,  c.  3. 

*  Argumentum  est  deformitatis  pudicitia  •  •  .  Numquid  jam 
ullus  adulterii  pudor  est,  postquam  coavcntum  est,  ut  nulla  virum 
habeat,  nisi  ut  adulterum  irritet?     {De  Ben.,  1,  iii.  c.  l6.) 

'  Lib.  8,  ad  Fajn.^  ep.  7. 

•  Amu,  2,  83. 


26  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

palities.  It  does  not  appear  that  these  societies  elevated 
her  morals  or  character.^ 

Of  the  effect  of  the  new  Faith  on  this  debasement 
of  morals  we  shall  speak  elsewhere.  Our  present  concern 
is  with  its  influence  on  legislation.  Laws  are  often  far 
behind  the  morals  of  a  community  ;  and  the  Christian 
principles  would  naturally  enter  very  slowly  into  the  legis- 
lation of  an  empire  like  the  Roman.  Constantine  is  the 
first  nominally  Christian  emperor,  but  in  life  and  character 
was  much  further  from  the  Christian  standards  than  some 
of  the  Pagan  emperors.  Yet  his  body  of  legislation  first 
shows  the  new  principles  struggling  with  old  habits  and 
modes  of  life.  By  laws  passed  in  330-331  A.D.,  a  wife 
may  be  divorced  from  her  husband  only  under  three  con- 
ditions ;  when  he  is  a  murderer,  a  magician,  and  a  violator 
of  tombs.  A  wife  who  divorces  herself  without  cause 
loses  her  dos,  and  is  banished  to  an  island.  The  husband 
may  be  divorced  from  his  wife  when  she  is  adulterous 
or  given  to  evil  practices.  The  divorced  husband  can 
marry  again  and  keep  the  <'/(C7J"  of  his  first  wife.  But  if  the 
woman  succeeds  in  proving  her  innocence,  she  has  right 
again  to  all  the  property  of  her  husband,  and  even  to  the 
dos  of  the  second  wife. 

This  legislation  under  Constantine  sought  in  every  way 
to  strengthen  the  marriage  tie.  Civil  equality  was  restored 
between  the  spouses.  The  duty  of  fidelity  was  presented 
to  the  husband  by  the  law,  as  a  sacred  obligation  to  him 
as  much  as  to  the  woman.  A  married  man  was  prohibited 
(340  A.D.)  from  having  a  concubine,  and  finally  adultery 
was  punished  as  a  capital  crime    {^faciiins  atrocissimiwi). 

*  Boissier,  in  his  excellent  work,  La  Religion  Romaine,  has  argued 
with  great  force  for  a  better  character  of  Roman  Society  than 
historians  ha'C  given  to  it.  (See  De  Rossi,  La  Roina  sotL^  torn,  iil 
1877.) 


ROMAN  CODE    UPON  DIVORCE.  27 

Concubinage  was  opposed,  and  efforts  were  made  to  change 
it  into  a  permanent  marriage.  This  legislation  went  on 
under  succeeding  emperors.  Honorius  and  Theodosius 
(421  A.D.)  provided  by  law  that  any  woman  divorcing  her 
husband,  without  legitimate  cause,  should  lose  her  dos  and 
all  gifts  of  her  husband,  and  be  banished  without  hope 
of  re-marriage.  A  husband  guilty  of  this  offence  was 
punished  in  like  manner.  A  woman  repudiated  wrongfully 
could  re-marry  in  a  year ;  and  the  husband  abandoned  by 
his  wife,  could  re- marry  at  once.  After  a  legal  divorce, 
the  wife  could  re- marry  in  five  years.  Theodosius  and 
Valerian  III.  returned  somewhat  to  liberty  of  divorce,  but 
afterwards  were  compelled  to  limit  it  again. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  this  struggle  of  Christianity  to 
impress  upon  Roman  law  the  sanctity  of  marriage,  was 
pre-eminently  successful.  What  was  gained  in  one  reign 
was  lost  in  another.  Justinian's  Code  even  extended  the 
causes  of  divorce.  The  marriage  by  "  civil  contract " 
could  be  dissolved  by  mutual  consent ;  but  if  one  party 
only  consented,  heavy  penalties  were  inflicted  on  the  other 
unless  legal  grounds  for  divorce  existed.  The  woman 
who  divorced  herself  from  her  husband  without  reason, 
lost  her  dos  and  was  shut  up  in  a  monastery  ;  her  property 
was  divided,  one-third  falling  to  the  children,  and  two- 
thirds  to  the  monastery.  The  husband  for  a  similar 
offence  was  first  fined,  and  finally  imprisoned  in  a  mon- 
astery, and  deprived  of  his  property.^  The  children  were 
usually  delivered  to  that  one  of  the  parents  believed  by 
the  court  to  be  most  capable  of  taking  care  of  them.  A 
preference  was  expressed  in  the  laws,  that  that  parent 
should  have  the  charge  of  them  who  had  not  been  a 
cause  of  the  divorce. 

So  changing  and  inconsistent  were  the  different  laws  of 
'  Nov.,  117,  c.  13. 


28  GESTA    CHRIS  TI. 

Justinian  on  this  important  matter,  that  the  commentators 
have  been  obliged  to  confess,  that  "  some  were  the  laws 
of  the  Caesars  and  some  of  Christ."  ^ 

The  successors  of  Justinian  fell  into  the  non-Christian 
practice,  and  restored  the  liberty  of  divorce  by  mutual 
consent. 

Concubinage. — By  the  side  of  legal  marriage,  existed 
in  Rome  the  connection  of  concubinage.  Constantine's 
legislation  shows  the  effect  of  the  new  ideas  spreading  in 
the  world,  in  its  struggle  with  this  evil.  His  laws  gave 
legitimacy  to  children  born  in  concubinage,  provided  the 
parents  were  subsequently  married  ;  another  law  forbade 
any  gift  or  bequest  to  natural  children,  and  still  another 
forbade  official  personages  making  public  their  condition 
of  concubinage. 

Under  Justinian,  natural  children  were  legitimized  in 
three  modes  :  by  incorporation  in  the  curia  (the  class 
from  which  magistrates  were  elected),  by  subsequent 
marriage  of  the  parents,  and  by  special  edict  of  the 
emperor. 

As  we  have  said,  these  effects  of  Christianity  on  Roman 
law  in  regard  to  marriage  and  divorce,  and  the  violation 
of  purity,  are  not  striking,  yet  they  show  the  beginning  of 
the  great  reforms  which  this  Faith  is  adapted  to  produce. 

'  Alias  sunt  leges  Cassarum,  aliae  Christi,  {Jerom  ^  i  178.  Selden, 
Uxor.  Eb  1.  iii.  c.  31.) 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PERSONAL   PURITY   AND   MARRIAGE. 

It  need  not  be  said  that  the  Christian  system  of  morals 
demanded  the  utmost  purity  of  Hfe,  as  well  from  the  man 
as  the  woman.  In  regard  to  masculine  purity,  it  is  still  in 
advance  of  the  current  opinion  of  the  civilized  world.  So 
strongly  is  this  elevation  of  morals  characteristic  of  Christ's 
life,  that  we  do  not  look  for  or  expect  direct  teachings 
against  vice.  No  direct  denunciation  is  transmitted  from 
Him  against  one  of  the  most  terrible  organized  evils  of 
ancient  or  modern  times — prostitution,  or  against  the 
unnatural  vices  which  were  eating  out  the  heart  of  Roman 
and  Greek  society.  The  impression,  however,  which  an 
impartial  reader  would  get  from  the  narrative,  is  of  a 
person  so  pure  and  elevated  that  such  vices  could  not 
even  be  thought  of  when  under  His  influence.  His  power 
goes  back  of  organized  vices,  and  touches  the  sources  of 
character.  His  relations  to  abandoned  women  ;  the  story 
of  the  adulterous  woman,  which,  whether  true  or  imagined, 
shows  the  popular  conception  of  His  character  ;  and  the 
few  words  reported  from  Him  on  these  and  related 
topics,  together  with  the  character  of  His  early  followers, 
all  point  to  the  unique  elevation  and  nature  of  His  in- 
fluence on  the  great  weakness  and  sin  of  mankind.  He 
required  absolute  purity  from  man  as  from  woman.  He 
was  not,  however,  alone  in  this.  The  Stoical  moralists 
had  done  the  like  ;  yet  but  few  of  their  followers  had  ever 

practised    this  high  self-restraint,   and  no  great  example 

29 


30  CESTA   CHRISTI. 

stimulated  them  to  it.  Even  the  Stoical  jurists  ^  alluded 
to  the  principle  ;  but  there  is  little  question  that  before 
Christianity  entered  the  world,  comparatively  few  persons 
felt  this  obligation  of  morals,  and  it  may  be  said  that  now, 
a  ereat  multitude  in  all  Christian  countries  have  never 
yet  reached  the  level  of  Christian  doctrines  in  this  respect 
Had  the  Founder  of  Christianity  simply  taught  purity  as 
some  of  the  early  Fathers  taught  it— as  meaning  absolute 
asceticism  and  celibacy — the  world  would  have  been  com- 
paratively little  benefited.  The  nature  of  man  would  have 
re-acted  against  it.  We  should  have  had  even  more  celi- 
bate sects,  greater  reactions,  a  more  unnatural  condition  of 
society,  and  a  falling  again  into  vices  and  habits  as  bad 
as  those  of  the  imperial  era.  Such  a  system  of  morality 
could  not  have  met  some  of  the  first  conditions  of  a 
divinely  sanctioned  system  ;  it  would  have  been  only 
temporary  and  incomplete. 

Marriage. — But  it  is  evident  that  Christ  set  the  highest 
value  on  marriage.  The  only  human  institution  in  regard 
to  which  He  departed  from  His  ordinary  habit,  was  that  of 
marriage.  He  lays  down  here  a  direct  and  positive  rule. 
The  words  are  so  clear  and  definite,  that  a  mistake  of 
the  historian  or  transcriber  seems  hardly  possible.  He 
evidently  felt  the  bond  as  one  which  more  than  any  other 
binds  human  society  together.  He  foresaw  the  boundless 
evils  which  would  arise  to  the  world  from  a  looseness  of  its 
tics  ;  the  breaking  up  of  homes  ;  the  neglect  and  ruin  of 
children  ;  the  low  position  which  freedom  of  divorce  would 
give  to  woman  ;  the  temptation  to  man  to  choose  and  to 
throw  aside;  the  destruction  and  degradation  of  family  life 
which  must  ensue  where  marriage  is  taken  up  and  broken 

'  Periniquiim  enim  mihi  videtur  esse,  ut  pudicitiam  v'.r  ab  uxore 
exigat,  quam  ipse  non  exhibet.  {De  conj.  adult.,  1.  ii  c.  8.  Cod.  Greg., 
XIV.) 


CHRISTIAN  IDEAL   OF  MARRIAGE.  31 

at  every  whim  He  either  foresaw  these  evi.s,  now  so 
famiHar  to  morahsts,  or  He  felt  the  sacredness  of  the  union 
so  deeply,  as  to  command  that  only  one  cause  should  break 
it — unfaithfulness  to  the  lie,  or  its  moral  equivalent. 

And  in  the  case  of  separation  for  just  cause — which  He 
does  not  forbid — He  does  not  permit  a  second  marriage 
In  His  view,  the  unliappy  partners  must  bear  the  evils  they 
have  brought  upon  themselves,  for  the  sake  of  the  general 
good.  At  least  this  would  seem,  from  the  few  words 
reported,  to  have  been  the  position  of  the  Founder  of 
Christianity ;  and  the  words  are  quite  as  distinct  as  many 
on  which  lasting  Christian  customs  and  doctrines  and 
institutions  have  been  founded. 

In  a  matter,  however,  of  such  vast  importance  to  society, 
it  would  not  be  wise  to  form  our  permanent  judgment  as 
to  the  teachings  of  Christianity  from  a  few  literal  words 
of  Christ.  There  may  be  qualifications  which  have  not 
been  reported  to  us,  or  other  commands  which  have  not 
reached  modern  times.  We  can  only  reasonably  infer 
from  the  language  and  drift  of  the  gospel  historians,  that 
our  Lord  attached  the  highest  sanctity  to  the  idea  of 
marriage,  and  taught  the  exceeding  strictness  of  the  tie, 
allowing  no  cause  but  unfaithfulness,  or  some  equivalent 
moral  evil,  to  be  a  cause  of  separation. 

Here,  again,  as  we  shall  show  later,  the  Leader  is  far  in 
advance  of  His  followers  ;  and  the  modern  Christian  world 
itself  has  not  yet  accepted  the  principles  of  their  Teacher. 
The  Apostles  followed  on  in  the  same  footsteps.  Mar- 
riage was,  to  them,  a  mystical  union  of  the  most  holy 
and  ennobling  character.  Under  the  great  Christian  idea 
that  the  body  was  "  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit,"  all 
forms  of  illicit  intercourse  were  profanation,  and  marriage 
like  the  union  of  Christ  with  tne  souls  of  his  followers. 
This  elevating    and   wholesome  idea,   which    was  equally 


3a  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

removed  from  asceticism  and  sensuality,  was  thrown  as  a 
new  purifying  element  into  the  fetid  mass  of  Roman  vices 
and  evil  habits.  The  early  Christians  illustrated  the 
principle  with  their  lives  and  ennobled  it  with  their  death. 
Their  wives  shared  every  persecution  and  pain  of  mortal 
life,  and  the  repeated  inscriptions  on  their  tombs  showed 
that  the  hope  of  sharing  immortality  together  lighted  up 
even  the  ghastly  arena  with  heavenly  joy.  Though  the 
Master  had  not  promised  the  continuance  of  the  relations 
of  earth  in  the  present  form,  it  became  a  favourite 
Christian  inscription  over  the  grave  that  the  departed 
had  been  the  husband  of  but  one  wife,  or  the  wife  of  but 
one  husband  in  the  life  below. 

It  is  true  that  this  sense  of  personal  purity  worked  at 
length  beyond  the  original  teachings,  and  produced  great 
calamities  in  the  world,  by  the  doctrine  and  practice  of 
asceticism.  The  history  of  celibacy  in  the  early  centuries 
after  Christ  down  to  the  Middle  Ages,  forms  one  of  the 
darkest  features  in  the  annals  of  the  Church.  The  practice 
was  commenced,  no  doubt,  under  reasonable  motives,  to 
give  greater  freedom  to  the  religious  teacher  in  a  wild  age, 
and  enable  him  to  consecrate  himself  more  absolutely  to 
the  work  of  religion.  It  was  stimulated  by  the  Oriental 
spirit  of  asceticism  which  early  entered  and  finally  cor- 
rupted the  Church.  The  opposition  of  the  most  elevated 
spirits  of  the  Church  assailed  it  in  every  century ;  but 
it  was  sustained  by  the  astute  ecclesiastical  leaders,  who 
feared  the  growth  of  a  kind  of  ecclesiastical  feudalism 
with  a  married  clergy,  where  power  and  possessions 
would  be  transmitted  from  the  priest  to  his  children.  It 
became  the  interest  of  the  Roman  ciiria  to  cut  off  every 
servant  of  the  Church  from  human  ties,  making  itself 
the  sole  power  in  the  ecclesiastical  world.  A  priest  with 
children    and    possessions,  it  was  thought,  would   never 


CELIBACY.  33 

be  an  utterly  obedient  and  faithful  servant  to  churchly 
authority.  Devoted  Christians  in  every  age,  among  the 
clergy,  opposed  the  practice,  but  the  power  of  organiza- 
tion, the  interest  of  authority  and  no  doubt  often  an 
exaggerated  asceticism,  overcame  them.  The  custom  at 
length  proved  one  of  the  curses  of  humanity.  As  has 
been  frequently  remarked,  it  withdrew  the  most  able  and 
earnest  among  religious  men  and  women  during  many 
centuries,  from  family  life,  and  cut  off  their  legitimate  line. 
Those  who  were  the  most  sincere  left  no  children,  and 
by  so  much  diminished  the  inheritance  of  human  good. 
The  weak  and  dishonest  left  children  to  chance  care  and 
public  protection,  and  thus  increased  the  numbers  of  those 
exposed  to  moral  dangers  and  physical  suffering.  Then, 
worst  of  all,  the  practice  let  loose  through  the  early  and 
middle  ages  after  Christ,  a  fearful  flood  of  licentiousness, 
hidden  indulgence,  crime  against  families,  and  even  un- 
natural vices.  The  licentiousness  of  the  convents  and 
clergy  became  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to  the  progress 
of  the  Christian  religion.^  But  for  all  this  Christianity  is 
not  responsible.  Asceticism  was,  in  part,  a  natural  re- 
action against  the  boundless  licentiousness  and  immorality 
of  the  Roman  world. 

The  Christian  influence,  it  is  true,  worked  with  only 
partial  success  in  its  struggle  with  Roman  customs  and 
laws  in  regard  to  marriage.  The  laxity  had  too  deeply 
penetrated  the  habits  of  the  people.  We  have  seen  that 
the  legislation  under  the  Christian  emperors  was  of  a 
shifting  character,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  old  customs 
of  the  Romans  long  resisted  the  new  ideas.     Christianity 


'  The  best  history  of  this  important  topic  is  contained  in  Mr.  Lea's 
admirable  Hislofical  Sketch  of  Celibacy,  one  of  the  clearest  and 
most  valuable  works  on  the  Middle  Ages,  yet  written. 


34  GESTA    LHRISTL 

laboured  in  two  directions  :  it  strove  to  ennoble  and  make 
firm  tlie  marriage  relation,  and  it  by  no  means  allowed 
the  freedom  of  action  which  was  permitted  to  the  Roman 
lady  under  the  marriage  of  "  usus,"  or  the  "  Free  marriage." 
It  elevated  the  position  of  woman  and  the  character  of 
the  relation  between  husband  and  wife  ;  but  required  of 
the  latter  a  certain  propriety  and  deference  in  appro- 
priate things  to  the  wishes  of  her  husband  and  the  rules 
of  the  Church,  which  the  Roman  uxor  had  not  latterly 
known.  The  influence,  however,  of  the  Church  on  Roman 
law  relating  to  marriage  and  the  sexes,  is  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  that  of  Christianity.  All  that  the  latter 
taught  was  personal  purity,  and  the  absolute  sacredness 
of  the  tie. 

But  when  we  hear  in  Justinian's  i  iV^7v//(^  that  nothing 
in  human  affairs  is  so  much  to  be  venerated  as  marriage, 
we  may  be  sure  that  here  is  a  clear  trace  of  the  new 
influence. 

We  contrast  the  position  given  to  women  by  one  of  the 
noblest  of  the  Stoical  jurists,  Paul,  who  wrote  in  the  third 
century,  but  under  no  influence  from  the  new  Faith 
"Women,"  he  says,  "in  every  kind  of  affairs  and  obli- 
gations, whether  in  behalf  of  men  or  women,  are  prohibited 
from  having  any  concern."  ^ 

When  Justinian  says  :^  "  We  enact  then  that  all  persons, 
so  far  as  they  can,  should  preserve  chastity,  which  alone 
is  able  to  present  the  souls  of  men  with  confidence  before 

'  Nihil  in  rebus  mortalium  perinde  venerandum  est,  atque  matii- 
monium.     De  Nii/tiis. 

-  In  omni  genere  negotiorum  et  obligationum,  tarn  pro  viris  quam 
pro  feminis,  intercedere  mulieres  prohibentur.  {Paul.  Sent,,  lib.  II. 
t.  xii.) 

'  Sancimus  igitur  omnes  quidam,  secundum  quod  possunt,  casti- 
latem  agere  ;  qua;  etiam  sola  Deo  cum  fiducia  potis  est  hominum 
animas  praescntare.     {Nov.,  iii.  i,  14.) 


EFFECT   UPON  WOMAN.  35 

God,"  we  know  immediately  that  here  is  a  faint  reflection 
of  the  new  Light  shining  in  the  world.  And  when  the 
law-giver  expresses  his  belief  in  the  Lord  God,  that 
through  his  zeal  for  chastity,  a  great  benefit  will  accrue 
to  the  Republic,^  we  can  see  distinctly  the  workings  of 
the  new  power. 

Under  Cliristianity  begins  that  position  of  woman,  which 
has  been  since  both  an  element  and  an  evidence  of  the 
progress  of  the  most  civilized  races.  With  all  changes  of 
society,  she  has  never  lost  the  halo  which  the  new  Faith 
threw  about  her  then,  and,  as  we  shall  show  later,  even  the 
submergence  of  the  Roman  empire  under  the  Northern 
barbarians,  only  aided  the  influence  of  Christianity  in 
exalting  the  weaker  sex. 

Sir  Henry  Maine,  in  his  valuable  work  on  the  "  Early 
History  of  Institutions,"  states  that  the  existing  written 
law  of  the  Hindoos  has  preserved  many  of  the  strict  and 
harsh  features  in  regard  to  the  paternal  and  marital  power, 
which  belonged  to  the  ancient  despotism  of  the  family,  and 
is  distinguished  for  "  its  excessive  harshness  to  the  personal 
and  proprietary  liberty  of  women."  ^ 

Whatever  independence  from  the  family  despotism  has 
been  secured  to  the  child  or  the  woman  in  India,  he  justly 
attributes  to  the  influence  of  religion — the  ancient  faiths  of 
India.  Wherever  there  prevailed  any  belief  in  responsi- 
bility after  death,^  "  the  conception  of  the  individual  who 
was  to  suffer  separately  was  necessarily  realized  with 
extreme  distinctness,"  and  it  is  this  conception  of  the  in- 
dividual and  his  rights  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  great 
modern  legal  reforms. 

'  Credimus  in  Domino  Deo,  etiam  ex  hoc  nostro  circa  castitatem 
studio,   magnum    fieri  nostrae   republic3s   incrementum.     {Nov.    xiv 

3,1.) 
2  Page  303.  »  Page  331. 


36  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  Buddhism,  in  teaching  the 
absorption  or  annihilation  of  individuality  {iiirvand)  in 
divinity,  may  have  also  aided  in  giving  that  inferior 
position  to  woman  which  is  characteristic  of  Oriental 
countries. 

The  author  quoted  above,  who  is  certainly  not  too 
favourable  to  Christianity,  admits  that  among  all  the  in- 
fluences which  have  made  the  two  great  branches  of  the 
Aryan  races  so  different — the  Hindoos  on  the  one  side 
and  the  European  on  the  other — the  one  most  powerful 
in  forming  the  civilization  of  each  is,  that  the  one  branch 
steadily  carried  forward  the  series  of  reforms  which  elevated 
woman,  and  the  other,  though  going  a  little  way,  recoiled 
from  them.* 

In  other  words,  the  European  races  lived  under  the 
peculiar  influence  and  stimulus  of  the  teachings  of  Christ, 
and  the  Hindoos  under  non-Christian  faiths.  The  former 
everywhere  tended  to  elevate  woman,  both  through  the 
individual  responsibility  taught  and  through  the  example  of 
the  Teacher.      The  latter  only  partially  ensured  this  end. 

Unnatural  Vices. — In  one  violation  of  personal  purity, 
the  Christian  system  has  achieved  a  signal  and  lasting 
victory  ;  and  yet — so  far  has  the  Christian  world  advanced 
beyond  the  Greek  and  Roman  standards — the  subject 
itself  has  become  revolting  and  abhorrent  to  modern  tastes. 
But  to  omit  all  mention  of  it  would  be  to  leave  out  of 
view  one  of  the  great  and  beneficent  triumphs  of  the 
system  of  morals  which  came  forth  from  the  teachings 
and  life  of  Christ.  Our  Lord  Himself  never  speaks  of 
unijatural  passions.  The  very  spirit  of  His  personality 
would  banish  even  the  thought  of  them,  and  the  personal 
love  He  inspired  put  the  soul  far  above  all  temptation 
under  them. 

'  Early  Hist  of  Inst.,  p.  341. 


PLATO   ON  UNNATURAL  PASSION.  37 

One  great  philosopher,  who  in  Greek  and  Roman 
history  approached  nearest  Jesus  in  his  conception  of  the 
reforming  and  renovating  power  of  love  to  a  Divine  charac- 
ter— Plato,  speaks  with  a  despairing  sadness  of  these  lusts 
which  were  eating  out  the  vigour  and  character  of  his 
people.  He  evidently  looks  to  the  future  abolition  of 
these  fearful  evils  as  remote  as  we  would  in  this  day  to 
the  removal  of  prostitution,  or  the  entire  doing  away  of 
war.  Three  principles  or  moral  forces,  he  says  in  the 
"  Laws,"  may  break  up  these  evils.  First,  that  of  piety,  or 
love  to  a  Divine  person  ;  second,  the  desire  for  honour  or 
the  respect  of  the  good  ;  and  thirdly,  the  love  of  moral 
beauty — that  not  of  the  body  but  of  the  soul.^  "  These 
be  perhaps  romantic  aspirations,  but  they  are  the  noblest 
of  aspirations,  if  they  could  only  be  realized  in  any  state  ; 
and,  God  willing,  in  the  matter  of  love,  we  may  be  able  to 
enforce  this."  He  urges  then  that  those,  not  only  guilty 
of  these  passions,  but  all  who  sinned  publicly  against  the 
marriage  tie,  should  be  excluded  from  all  civic  honours 
and  privileges,  and  be  deemed  strangers  and  barbarians. 
In  another  passage,  he  says,  "  Now  if  a  law  to  this  effect 
could  only  be  made  perpetual,  such  as  already  prevents 
incest,  such  a  law,  extending  to  other  desires  and  conquer- 
ing them,  would  be  the  source  of  ten  thousand  blessings;. 

^  Iv  yevos  6V,  ireptXa/Jov  to,  rpta  y^f],  ^ta^otr'  av  ^yj  irapavofiiiv. 

KA.      noia  87^ ; 

A.©.  To  re  Oeoae/^ks  afxa  Koi  <^tXort/zoi/  koL  to  fxr)  twv  o-w/iarwv, 
dXXa  Twv  rpoTTOv  Trj<;  i/'^X'/^  ovtcjv  KaXQ)V  ye  yovos  iv  iTriOv/xta,  ravra 
8rj  Ka9a.7rep  tcTws  iv  fwOtiJ  to,  vvv  Aeyo/icv  1<ttlv  cu^^at',  ttoXv  ye  fxijv 
apLCTTa,  ctTrep  yt'yrocTO  iv  Tracrats  TToXecrt,  ytyvotro  av,  ra^a  8'  av, 
el  ^eos  iOiXni,  kuv  8voiv  Odrepa  ^tacrat/xe^a  Trepl  ipiHTiKSiv,  rj  firjBiva 
ToXjjLav  p.TjZe.vo';  aTrrecrOat  twv  yei'ratojr  ayu.a  .vat  iXevdcpcDV  -jrXrjV 
ya/AerJjs  lavrov  yvratKos,  aOvra  Se  7raA.Xa/ctoi/  cnripp-ara  koL  voOa  /xi^ 
<ntf.ipe.LV  firjBk  ayova  appcvinv  Trapa  ij/vaiv.      {Noinoi^  8.) 


38  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

.  .  .  But  matters  have  now  come  to  such  a  pass  thai 
the  enactment  of  such  laws  seems  to  be  impossible,  and 
never  likely  to  take  place  ;  just  as  the  continuance  of  an 
entire  state  in  the  practice  of  common  meals  is  also  deemed 
impossible." 

The  passion  of  which  he  speaks  arose  in  Greece  un- 
doubtedly from  an  exaggerated  love  of  youthful  beauty, 
and  was,  with  some  of  the  moralists,  like  Socrates,  one  of 
the  purest  of  sentiments.  The  three  forces  of  which  Plato 
spoke,  were  especially  thrown  into  the  world  by  Jesus : — 
love  to  a  Divine  Person  ;  the  respect  of  the  good  or  of  His 
followers  ;  and  an  elevated  feeling  for  moral  beauty.  In 
the  mind  of  the  humble  follower  of  Christ  was  ever  that 
pure  and  Divine  image,  into  whose  likeness  he  hoped  day 
by  day  to  be  changed  ;  around  him  were  the  good,  whose 
respect  was  his  comfort  ;  and  before  his  thoughts  were 
oftentimes  things  pure  and  noble  and  of  good  report. 

Nothing  shows  more  distinctly  the  degradation  of  the 
moral  sense  of  the  ancient  world  in  these  matters  than  the 
speech  which  Plato  puts  in  the  mouth  of  Alcibiades  in 
regard  to  Socrates,  in  the  drunken  dinner  of  the  "  Sym- 
posium." It  is  utterly  untranslatable  to  modern  ears ;  and 
though  the  great  moralist  is  everywhere  pictured  as  free 
from  vice,  his  purity  seems  rather  an  effect  of  his  intel- 
lectual pre-occupations,  and  is  never  once  spoken  of  by 
dramatist,  or  biographer,  or  by  himself,  as  any  virtue.  The 
Greek,  and  more  particularly  the  Latin  literature,  is  filled 
with  traces  of  vices  which  have  utterly  passed  out  of 
memory  in  the  Christian  world.  Lucian,  nearly  all  the 
Latin  poets  and  dramatists,  Apuleius,  Petronius  Arbiter, 
Athenaeus,  reveal  a  debasement  of  morality  among  classes 
not  corrupted  by  luxury,  which  has  not  been  known 
in  modern  times.  It  is  not  that,  like  Juvenal,  they  pick 
out  extreme  immoralities  for  a  biting  sarcasm ;  but  they 


CHRISTIAN  OPPOSITION.  39 

allude  casually  and  without  shame  to  excesses  ?.nd  habit  lal 
vices,  whose  very  name  is  lost  to  modern  ears.  Even 
Cicero  says  soberly  that  it  was  held  as  a  disgrace  among 
the  Greeks  not  to  indulge  in  unnatural  vices.^  He  did  not 
say  that  his  own  countrymen  fell  even  lower  than  the 
Greeks. 

The  early  Christians  set  themselves  like  a  wall  against 
this  tide  oj  sensuality.  The  plain  words  of  the  Apostle 
are  well  known."  Where  Christianity  had  the  faintest 
power,  there  such  impurity  could  not  even  be  thought 
of  As  soon  as  its  influence  reached  legislation,  we  find 
a  vigour  of  denunciation  and  a  severity  against  these 
excesses,  which  show  the  new  Power  in  the  world. 
The  Theodosian  Code,  which  codifies  the  legislation  even 
of  Constantine,  orders  the  most  intense  punishments  on 
those  guilty  of  such  crimes.^  And  again,  filled  with  the 
Christian  idea  of  the  body  as  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  law-maker  speaks  of  the  duty  of  preserving 
the  abode  of  a  manly  soul  sacred,*  and  threatens  the 
severest  penalty  on  anj^  who  should  violate  it.  Justinian 
shows  even  more  clearly  the  influence  of  the  Apostles 
and  of  the  Scripture  in  following  the  new  ideas  on  these 
crimes.  He  says,  "  taught  by  the  Holy  Scripture,  we  know 
what  a  just  punishment  God  inflicted  on  the  inliabitants 
of  Sodom,"  and  he  warns  all  who  have  the  fear  of  God,  to 
abstain  from  actions  so  wicked  and  impious  that  even  the 

*  Apud  Grsecos,  opprobrium  fuit  adolescentibus,  si  amatores  non 
haberent.     {De  Rep./iagm.,  lib.  iv.) 

^  Romans  i.  23-29. 

3  Ubi  Venus  mutatur  in  alteram  formam,  ubi  Amor  quceritur  nee 
videtur,  jubemus  insurgere  leges  ut  exquisitis  pcenis  su'^dantur  in* 
fames,  qui  sunt,  vel  qui  futuri  sunt  tei.    (Cod.  Thr:od.,\y..  tit.  vii.  2,  3.) 

■'  Sacrosanctum  cunctis  esse  deoere  hospitium  virilis  animae  ;  nee 
sine  summo  supplicio  alienum  expetisse  sexum,  qui  suum  turpitef 
perdidisset.     (ix.  t.  7.) 


40  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

brutes  do  not  commit  them,^  And  still  again,  the  law 
bids  the  offenders  who  violate  nature,  to  bear  in  mind  the 
fear  of  God  and  a  future  judgment.^ 

So  far  as  is  known,  no  philosophy  or  religion  among 
the  Greek  and  Roman  races  freed  mankind  from  these 
detestable  vices. 

The  emperors  under  Stoical  influences  made  some  effort 
to  check  them,  but  without  success.  Domitian  punished 
certain  knights  and  senators  for  these  offences.  Antoninus 
Pius  and  Marcus  Aurelius  had  the  virtue  to  avoid  but  not 
to  punish.  A.  Severus,  it  is  said  by  the  historian,  ''  habiiit^ 
in  animo  ut  exoletos'^  vetaref' ;  but  he  feared  the  increase 
of  private  vice,  and  therefore  let  alone  the  ''scorta  virilia." 
These  vices  still  exist  among  peoples  outside  of  Chris- 
tianity. They  are  well-known  in  Turkey  and  India.  But 
so  imbued  has  civilized  society  become  with  the  principles 
taught  by  the  Master,  that  such  evils  are  left  behind  in 
its  moral  progress,  and  no  longer  threaten  the  future  of  the 
race. 

May  it  be  an  omen  of  other  triumphs ! 

'  Scimus  etenim,  sacris  scriptuiis  edocti,  quam  jiistum  Deus  suppli- 
cium,  his  qui  olim  in  Sodomis  habitabant,  propter  hunc  ipsum  in 
commistione  furorem  intulerit,  .  .  .  unde  omnes  qui  limori  Dei 
intenti  sunt,  convenit,  ut  a  tarn  impia  et  scelesta  actione  abstineant, 
quam  ne  in  brutis  quidam  admissum  reperire  est.     {Nov.,  clx.  i.) 

^ .  .  .  Et  ipsi  naturae  contraria  agunt  ;  istis  injungimus  in  sensi- 
bus  accipere  Dei  timorem,  et  futurum  judicium,  et  abstinere  ab  hujus- 
modi  diabolicis  et  illicitis  luxuriis.     {Col.,  vi.  t.  i.  Nov.,  yj.) 

^  Exoletos  suos  ut  ad  longiorem  patientiam  impudicitiae  idonei  sint 
amputant.     {Seneca,  Coiitrov.,  lo,  4  ;  Ep.,  p.  49). 

•*  This  expressive  word  described  a  class  ;  they  were  indeed  utterly 
** burned  cut"  in  body  and  souL 


CHAPTER  V. 

SLAVERY. 

There  Is  probably  no  one  organised  evil  in  history  which 
has  been  so  replete  with  human  misery,  and  has  drawn 
after  it  such  a  train  of  vice,  degradation  and  corruption, 
as  slavery.  It  is  doubtful  if  it  ever  existed  in  a  worse  con- 
dition than  in  the  Roman  Empire  at  the  time  of  Christ.  In 
the  moral  struggle  with  the  abuses  of  slavery  in  different 
countries  and  ages,  especially  where  the  victims  were  of  a 
totally  different  and  inferior  race,  it  has  been  the  custom 
in  the  heat  of  the  argument  to  speak  of  modern  slavery  as 
worse  than  that  of  the  ancient  world.  But  closer  investi- 
gation shows  that  the  system  of  Roman  servitude  had 
more  than  the  cruelty  of  the  modern,  and  was  even  more 
of  an  irresponsible  despotism,  while  it  debauched  society 
and  literature  beyond  what  has  ever  been  experienced  in 
any  community  of  recent  times. 

A  distinguished  French  author  on  this  subject  (Wallon) 
has  somewhere  said,  that  for  public  depravity  to  reach 
its  utmost  depths  of  licentiousness,  there  needed  to  be  a 
being  with  the  passions  and  attractions  of  a  man,  yet 
stripped  by  public  opinion  of  all  the  moral  obligations  of 
a  human  being  ;  all  whose  wildest  excesses  were  lawful, 
provided  they  were  commanded  by  a  master.  Such  a 
being  was  the  Roman  slave.  We  can  see  his  influence  in 
the  disgusting  and  debasing  comedy  and  poetry  of  the 
Imperial   age,    wherein  the  relation  of  the  beautiful  and 


42  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

irresponsible  victims  of  power  to  masters  without  shame 
and  youth  without  virtue,  is  the  perpetual  theme. 

We  discern  the  canker  of  slavery  in  the  unexampled  and 
incredible  degradation  of  Roman  family  life  in  the  age 
accompanying  and  following  the  life  of  Christ.  And  the 
political  economist  finds  everywhere  in  Roman  polity  the 
seeds  of  boundless  misery  and  of  certain  financial  ruin,  in 
the  habits  and  customs  born  of  this  institution. 

It  was  not  latifmidia,  or  the  "  large  farm  system,"  which 
was  destroying  the  Roman  Empire,  but  the  poor  agricul- 
ture, the  waste,  extravagance,  bad  management,  aversion 
to  labour,  and  general  discontent — the  natural  fruit,  in  the 
rural  districts,  of  slavery.  This  unjust  system  was  eating 
away  the  character  and  life  of  the  ancient  world,  and 
preparing  calamities  which  should  be  felt  by  Europe  for 
hundreds  of  years  to  come. 

Christ  appeared  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  Roman 
empire,  in  an  age  when  these  evils  v/ere  at  their  worst, 
though  probably  but  iew  of  them  presented  themselves 
prominently  in  Galilee. 

It  might  have  been  thought  that  the  great  Reformer 
would  have  uttered  some  words  against  this  stupendous 
abuse.  To  the  mind  of  the  writer,  it  has  often  been  a 
subject  of  difficult  questioning,  why  He,  who  felt  so 
keenly  the  evils  of  humanity,  should  not  have  put  forth  one 
simple  command  against  this  gigantic  system  of  injustice. 

No  direct  word  against  slavery,  however,  came  forth  from 
the  great  Teacher.  It  was  not  until  the  ninth  century 
after,  that  one  of  his  humble  followers.  Saint  Theodore  of 
Studium  (Constantinople),  ventured  to  put  forth  the  com- 
mand "  Thou  shalt  possess  no  slave,  neither  for  domestic 
service  nor  for  the  labour  of  the  fields,  for  man  is  made  in 
the  image  of  God.  "^ 

"  Quoted  l)y  WuUo  i,  I/ist.  de  F Esclavagc,  vol.  iii.  p.  484. 


SILENCE   OF  CHRIST.  42 

The  explanation  of  the  silence  of  our  Lord  is  no  doubt 
to  be  found  in  the  general  character  and  design  of  His 
mission,  as  we  gather  them  from  His  life  and  the  words 
recorded  of  Him.  An  organised  evil  almost  as  destructive 
and  debasing  to  the  world  as  slavery,  was  prostitution. 
Unnatural  passions  were  consuming  the  life  and  virtue  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  races.  War  was  desolating  almost 
every  portion  of  the  world  and  bringing  after  it  trains  of 
evils  and  calamities.  Yet  Christ  only  alludes  to  these, 
or  implies  his  deep  and  fervent  opposition  to,  or  condem- 
nation of,  them. 

As  is  well  understood,  His  aim  was  to  renovate  and 
rescue  the  individual  soul,  looking  forward  through  that, 
n  very  remote  ages,  to  the  establishment  of  the  "  kingdom 
of  God  "  on  the  earth,  or  in  other  words,  to  the  social  and 
complete  reorganization  of  mankind  on  His  principles. 
We  find  no  evidence  in  His  words,  that  He  even  designed 
to  form  a  Church  or  general  organization  of  believers,  but 
rather  that  He  expected  that  little  gatherings  and  brother- 
hoods of  those  who  loved  and  followed  Him  would  form 
themselves  for  mutual  good.  His  language  in  innumerable 
similes  showed  that  He  believed  that  these  principles  He 
taught  would  only  be  successful  after  long  periods  of  time 
and  gradual  development.  Most  of  His  figures  and 
analogies  in  regard  to  the  "  kingdom  of  God,"  rest  upon 
the  idea  of  slow  and  progressive  growth  or  change.  He 
undoubtedly  saw  that  the  only  true  fenovation  of  the  world 
would  come,  not  through  reforms  of  institutions  or  govern- 
ments, but  through  individual  change  of  character,  effected 
by  the  same  power  to  which  Plato  appealed — the  love- 
power,  but  a  love  exercised  towards  Himself  as  a  perfect 
and  divine  model.  It  was  the  "  kingdom  of  God  "  in  the 
soul  which  should  bring  on  the  kingdom  of  God  in  human 
society.     With  such  a  mission  and  such  an  aim.  or  filled 


44  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

with  such  intense  sympathy  towards  men  and  such  a  pro- 
found sense  of  what  God  could  effect  in  each  human  soui, 
the  institutions  and  practices  of  men  would  sink  away  as 
of  comparatively  little  importance.  The  enduring  things 
below  all  governments  and  organized  evils,  were  the  human 
conscience  and  the  human  affections.  If  they  were  pure 
and  right,  all  else  would  gradually  become  so.  Such  an 
aspect  of  human  life  naturally  takes  no  account  of  some  ot 
the  grandest  movements  of  reform  in  different  ages.  To 
a  certain  extent  it  is  apart  from  all  efforts  for  liberty,  for 
improvement  of  laws  or  the  advancem.ent  of  science,  for 
the  spread  of  temperance  or  education,  for  opposition 
to  social  impurity,  for  the  protection  of  children  and  the 
elevation  of  the  poor.  And  yet  ultimately  this  Christian 
system  will  be  found  at  the  basis  of  all  these  great  move- 
ments of  progress  in  human  history.  But  it  began  by 
aiming  at  the  individual  and  not  at  society,  and  aiming 
alone  at  an  entire  change  of  the  affectional  and  moral 
tendencies. 

If  our  Lord  may  be  conceived  as  looking  at  the  imme- 
diate consequences  of  His  inspiration  and  His  teachings 
(which  we  doubt),  it  may  well  be  that  He  would  hesitate 
before  preaching  the  duty  of  immediate  emancipation  in 
the  Roman  empire  as  it  then  was.  The  truth  is,  that  a 
fathomless  pauperism  was  then  covering  the  empire — the 
result  of  conquests,  oppression,  bad  finance,  invasion  of 
barbarians,  and  slavery — and  to  thousands  of  the  poor 
slavery  v/as  a  less  evil  than  the  poverty  they  endured.  As 
we  shall  relate  afterwards,  there  came  a  time  when  an 
imperial  law,  permitting  those  who  "  took  up "  exposed 
children  to  make  slaves  of  them,  was  a  law  dictated  by 
motives  of  humanity.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  world  has  ever 
seen  an  era  when  so  many  human  beings  were  exposed  to 
such  bitter  poverty,  and  even  to  starvation,  as  during  the 


THE  SLAVE  IN  THE   CHURCH.  45 

fev/  centuries  after  Christ.  Now  for  a  Divine  teacher  to 
have  proclaimed,  then  and  there,  the  duty  of  absolute  and 
immediate  emancipation,  would  have  plunged  the  Roman 
world  into  a  "  misery  "  beyond  all  bounds  of  conception, 
and  would  have  let  loose  a  war  of  extermination  between 
masters  and  slaves,  which  would  have  turned  Europe  and 
Asia  into  a  field  of  blood  and  slaughter.  The  principles 
which  Christ  taught  evidently  must  overturn  slavery  from 
its  foundation.  They  scattered  the  seeds  of  absolute  free- 
dom and  equal  justice.  They  destroyed  all  distinctions 
of  caste  and  race.  The  individual  soul  became  of  infinite 
importance  and  of  equal  value,  whether  in  the  slave  or  the 
king.  The  Apostles  only  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
Master.  In  the  great  community  of  the  lovers  of  Christ, 
"  bond  and  free  "  were  alike.  There  was  no  distinction  in 
the  sight  of  God,  none  in  the  Church.  They  recognised 
slavery  as  they  recognised  the  tyranny  of  Cssar,  but  they 
put  the  slave,  in  their  treatment  and  their  language,  on  the 
like  footing  with  his  owner.  And  the  owner  could  only  be 
a  member  of  their  association  by  professing  to  be  willing 
to  treat  his  servant  as  he  would  himself  in  like  case  be 
treated.  The  slave  partook  of  the  memorials  of  the  life 
and  death  of  the  Lord  side  by  side  with  his  master.  The 
infant  ecclcsia,  or  assembly  and  brotherhood  of  believers, 
began  to  be  a  shelter  and  receptacle  for  numbers  of  that 
great  despised  multitude — the  slaves  of  the  Romans.^ 
It  is  true  that  in  the  succeeding  centuries  bishops  and 
clergymen  not  unfrequently  held  slaves.  But  the  spirit 
of  Christianity  began  immediately  that  long  contest 
with  human  slavery,  which,  under  changing  fortunes  and 
with  many  defeats,  has  been  waged  now  for  eighteen 
centuries,    and    may   be  said  only  to   have  won  its  final 

'  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  Romans  excluded  their  slaves 
from  a  share  in  patriotic  worship.     (Gz/,  Pe  Re  Rust.^  143.) 


46  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

victories  in  the  middle  and  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

In  considering  this  and  similar  struggles,  it  should  be 
understood  that  I  distinguish  always  between  "  Chris- 
tianity "  and  "  the  Cliurch."  The  history  of  the  latter 
has  been  by  no  means  consistent  with,  or  a  development 
of,  the  spirit  of  its  Founder.  Its  course  has  been  not 
seldom  marked  by  the  qualities  which  He  most  con- 
demned. It  has  committed  gigantic  blunders,  which  have 
retarded  for  ages  the  progress  of  His  principles.  An 
organization  may  bear  the  name  and  represent  some  of 
the  features  of  a  great  principle,  and  yet  in  others  be 
entirely  inconsistent  with  it.  No  true  Republican  would 
admit  that  the  first  French  Republic  represented  the 
genuine  idea  of  a  Republic,  even  if  it  had  been  trans- 
mitted under  that  name  for  many  centuries.  Under  the 
term  "  Christianity  "  we  include  the  principles  and  moral 
sentiments  taught  and  illustrated  by  the  life  and  words  of 
Christ,  as  they  are  made  known  in  the  writings  of  the 
gospel  historians  and  the  Apostles.  They  form  a  suf- 
ficiently distinct  body  of  moral  teaching,  and  are  often  an 
entirely  different  matter  from  the  teachings  or  the  example 
of  the  professed  followers  of  Christ. 

Christianity  and  Roman  Law  upon  Slavery. — In  studying 
the  influence  of  Christianity  upon  slavery  in  the  Roman 
empire,  we  are  never  to  lose  out  of  view  the  noblest 
school  of  moralists  which  the  world  has  seen  outside 
of  Christian  believers — the  Stoics.  These  philosophers 
had  a  profound  effect  upon  Roman  jurisprudence  just 
preceding  the  Christian  emperors.  The  statements  and 
principles  of  the  Stoical  jurists  in  regard  to  liberty  and 
natural  right  have  become  apopthegms  of  liberty,  and 
have  influenced  all  succeeding  ages.  They  have  reappeared 
in  the  declarations  and  charters  of  American  freedom,  and 


STOICS  AND   SLAVERY.  47 

in  the  enthusiastic  statements  of  the  French  writers  on 
Natural  Right. 

It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  they  had  any  very 
strong  efifect  upon  the  position  of  the  slave  under  Roman 
law,  and  still  less  on  the  practices  of  the  people  towards 
this  unhappy  victim.  The  Stoics  were  even  more  in- 
consistent with  their  principles  of  humanity  than  the 
Christians  ;  and  some  of  the  most  heartless  acts  of  in- 
humanity recorded  in  ancient  history  are  those  of  Stoics 
to  their  slaves. 

Cato  deliberately  gives  permission  to  sell  an  old,  or  a 
sick  slave.^  / 

The  following  instance  is  related  by  Tacitus  2 :  A  wealthy 
citizen  of  Rome  had  pledged  freedom  to  a  slave,  and  had 
broken  his  promise.  The  man,  enraged  and  disappointed, 
assassinated  his  master.  By  law,  in  such  cases,  all  the 
slaves  under  the  same  roof  should  be  executed.  The  pub- 
lic duty  in  this  case  was  discussed  in  the  Senate  ;  and  the 
celebrated  Stoic,  Cassius,  defended  the  law,  and  urged  its 
enforcement.  The  slaves,  all  innocent,  to  the  number  of 
six  hundred  persons,  were  finally  executed. 

Plutarch  says  that  Flaminius  put  a  slave  to  death  merely 
to  afford  a  spectacle  to  a  guest  who  had  never  seen  a  man 
die.  Cato,  the  Stoic,  when  he  put  one  to  death,  used  to 
take  the  opinion  of  all  the  others  before  killing  him.  The 
story  of  Pollio — also  a  Stoic — is  well  known  as  related  by 
Seneca  ;  how  he  amused  himself  by  feeding  his  fish  with 
fragments  of  his  mutilated  slaves.  Many  were  furnished 
to  the  amphitheatres  to  be  killed  in  the  public  festivals. 
Old  and  infirm  slaves  were  abandoned  to  die  of  hunger. 
Many  were  brought  to  an  island  in  the  Tiber  and  left  in 

'  Vendat    boves     vetiilos,  oves  deliculas     .     .  servum   senera, 

servum  morbosum  vendat.     {Cato,  De  remot.,  11.) 
*  Ann.,  xii.  lib.  42. 


48  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

the  temple  of  i5£sculapius  to  the  care  of  the  god.  The 
poet  says  of  such,  that  to  help  them  only  lengthens  out  a 
life  of  misery.^ 

Juvenal,  who  wrote  when  Stoicism  had  full  sweep  among 
the  Roman  cultivated  class,  asks  with  bitter  irony,  "  how 
a  slave  could  be  a  man."  ^ 

The  Stoic  Ulpian  speaks  of  "a  slave  or  any  other 
animal "  ^  ;  even  as  the  book  of  Revelation  describes  the 
wealth  of  the  wicked  Babylon,  as  in  "  the  bodies  and  souls 
of  men." 

Seneca  the  Elder  says  that  a  slave  has  no  hearth  nor 
religion.^ 

Even  Gains,  the  Stoical  jurist,  under  the  rule  of  that 
mild  philosopher,  Marcus  Aurelius,  could  observe  inci- 
dentally that  with  almost  all  nations,  the  right  of  life  and 
death  is  given  to  the  master  over  the  slave ;  ^  and  he 
classes  slaves  with  animals.  Yet  even  he  speaks  of  "  manu- 
mitting in  church,"  ^  as  if  Christian  ideas  had  reached 
the  legislation  of  the  Stoics,  and  he  afterwards  quotes : 
"  This  age  "^  of  humanity,"  as  if  he  felt  the  new  Power 
which  was  permeating  the  world. 

Still  the  inconsistencies  of  the  Stoics  should  never  cause 
mankind  to  forget  that  one  of  those  condensed  expressions 


*  De  mendico  male  meretur  qui  ei  dat  quod  edit  aut  quod  bibat 
Nam  et  illud  quod  dat,  parcit,  et  illi  producit  vitam  ad  miseriam. 

«  O  demens  !  ita  servus  homo  est ! 

Hoc  volo,  sic  jubeo,  sit  pro  ratione  voluntas  ! 

{Juv.  Sat.,  vi.  475.) 
'  Ulpian.  Dig.,  vi.  i,  15.  *  Controv.,  10,  21. 

*  Apud  omnes  pera^que  gentes  animadvertere  possumus,  dominii 
in  servos  vita;,  necisque  potestatem  esse.  {G.^  c.  I.  A.,  52.)  Servis, 
et  jumentis,  ceterisque  rebus,     (vii.  i,  3.) 

^  Nam  qui  voluerit  aut  in  ecclesia  ...  manumittere  G.,  I 
it  I.) 

'  Hoc  tempore.     (G.,  II.  x.  1.) 


NUMBER   OF  ROMAN  SLAVES.  49 

of  human  instincts,  which  has  been  a  charter  of  h'berty  to 
so  many  races  and  countries  since,  embodied  by  Justinian 
in  a  Christian  code,  came  originally  from  a  Stoical  jurist, 
"  By  natural  right  all  men  are  born  free ;  by  right  of 
nations  {i.e.^  by  conquest)  slavery  has  come  in."  ^ 

The  number  of  Roman  slaves  can  only  be  judged  of  by 
side  indications.  A  law  of  Augustus  forbade  a  poor  exile 
from  carrying  away  with  him  more  than  twenty  slaves  ; 
another  reduced  the  number  which  could  be  maintained 
by  testamentary  provisions,  making  one  hundred  the 
maximum,  which,  from  the  proportions  mentioned,  would 
indicate  that  five  hundred  was  not  an  uncommon  number 
to  be  owned  by  one  person.  We  hear  from  Seneca,"  of 
a  master  counting  the  roll  of  his  slaves  as  a  general  counts 
his  soldiers.  Martial  alludes  to  an  eccentric  person  being 
attended  by  from  ten  to  two  hundred  slaves  ;  Pliny  says 
that  Caecilius  left  4,1 16  slaves  after  his  death.  The  poets 
mention  them  as  the  sign  of  wealth  ;  -^  the  want  of  them 
was  the  last  evidence  of  poverty.*  Tacitus  speaks  of  the 
city  becoming  frightened  at  the  increasing  number  of 
slaves.^  A  proposition  was  once  made  in  the  Senate  to 
indicate  the  slaves  by  their  dress,  but  was  dropped  because 
of  the  danger  that  the  slaves  would  outnumber  the  free- 
men.^ When  Alaric  besieged  Rome,  he  was  aided  by  a 
force  of  40,000  slaves  from  the  city  itself     The  number 

'  Cum  jure  naturali,  omnes  liberi  nascerentur ;     .     .     .    jure  gen- 
tium servitas  invasit.     {Nov.)     {Dig.,  1.  4.    L.,  xvii.  52.) 
-  De  Tranq.  an.,  IX.  v. 

*  .     .     .    quot  pascit  servos  !  quot  possidet  agri 

Jugera  !  {Mart,,  xxii.  88,  3.) 

*  Isti  quoi  neque  servus  est,  neque  area.     {Cat.,  xxiv.  5,  8.) 

»  In  urbem  jam  trepidam  ob  multitudinem  familiorum.  {Afm}^ 
ix.  27.) 

°   Si    servi  nostri   numerate  nos  ccepissint      (Sen.,  De   CUm.f 
24.) 

E 


50 


CESTA    CHRIST r. 


evidently  was    formidable    throughout    the   period   imme- 
diately succeeding  Christ. 

In  his  legal  position  the  slave  was  a  property,  whose 
nature  nothing  but  the  will  of  the  master  could  change  ; 
he  could  be  given,  let,  sold,  exchanged,  and  seized  for 
debt.  He  had  no  civil  rights  ;  could  enjoy  no  legal 
marriage,  only  cohabitation  {conhibernium),  and  therefore 
could  not  be  accused  of  adultery.^  He  had  no  legal 
parentage,  no  property,  no  right  to  legacy  ;  could  sustain 
no  action  before  a  court,  could  not  be  a  witness,  and  his 
testimony  was  only  legal  with  torture.* 

Of  his  capacities  and  moral  nature  it  was  said,  "immo- 
desty is  a  crime  in  a  freeman,  a  necessity  in  a  slave,  a  duty 
in  a  freedman  (or  liberated  slave)."  Still,  with  all  this,  the 
Roman  slave  was  not  considered  in  law  as  altogether  a 
thing.  The  Cornelian  law  against  murder  applied  to  all 
conditions  of  men.  The  Stoical  spirit  had  begun  before 
Christianity  to  bring  about  some  alleviations  to  the  lot  of 
the  slave.  A  certain  right  of  property  was  given  him,  and 
under  Adrian  a  master  was  forbid  to  kill  his  slave.  Under 
Antoninus  Pius,  a  master  who  killed  his  bondman  without 
cause  was  punished  for  homicide.  Severus  forbade  personal 
injury  to  foreign  slaves.  The  Petronian  law  prevented 
masters  from  delivering  servants  to  be  employed  in  the 
combats  of  wild  beasts.  Adrian  prohibited  the  sale  of 
slaves,  without  the  intervention  of  judges,  for  the  contests 
of  gladiators ;  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  as  one  would  have 
expected  from  his  humanity,  enacted  a  similar  law  with 
reference  to  the  combats  of  wild  beasts.  Antoninus  Pius 
permitted  slaves  to  be  sold,  rather  than  punished,  who  took 

'  Servi  ob  violatum  contubernium  adulterii  nomine  accusari  non 
possunt.     (Z.,  23.    C.  /.,  ix.  9.    Ad.  leg.  Jul.  de  Aditlt.) 

-  Sine  tormentis,  testimonium  ejus  credendum  non  est.  {L.,  21,  2, 
DXXII.  De  Testi.) 


REFORMS   UNDER   THE  STOICS.  51 

refuge  at  altars  or  before  sacred  images.  The  recourse  of 
law  was  gradually  had  to  prevent  other  abuses  of  the  servile 
class  ;  thus  the  application  of  torture  to  servants  on  trial 
or  as  witnesses  was  by  degrees  disused.  Those  blessed 
words  so  much  used  by  the  Stoical  jurists,  "favor  libertatis/'^ 
the  presumption  of  liberty,  came  to  have  more  and  more 
power  on  legislation.  This  was  especially  true  of  the 
interpretation  of  wills.  It  was  not  permitted  to  bestow 
liberty  for  a  certain  number  of  years  ;  "once  free,  always 
free,"  was  the  motto.  If  a  slave  had  partly  paid  for  his 
liberty,  and  his  time  of  manumission  had  come,  it  was  not 
held  humane  to  cause  delay  through  a  question  of  pecu- 
niary profit.2 

Nothing  shows  better  how  comparatively  superficial 
the  influence  of  Stoicism  was,  how  confined  to  the  Roman 
cultivated  classes,  than  the  unhappy  position  of  the  slave, 
both  in  custom  and  law,  through  all  the  reign  of  this  noble 
philosophy.  Even  the  influence  of  Christianity,  when 
united  with  the  government,  had  a  long  and  often  defeated 
struggle  to  ameliorate  the  lot  of  the  unhappy  victims  of 
man's  greed  and  cruelty. 

The  union  of  the  Christian  Church  with  the  State  under 
Constantine  we  regard  as  one  of  the  great  blunders  of  the 
historical  Church,  which  has  drawn  after  it  a  long  train 
of  evils,  whose  efl'ects  are  even  yet  experienced.  Could 
Christianity  have  been  permitted  to  grow,  as  it  did  under 
the  Apostles,  in  little  voluntary  associations  of  believers, 
unconnected  with  the  civil  power  and  with  a  simple  organi- 
zation, we  should  not  have  had,  indeed,  the  grand  spectacle 
of  an  apparently  converted  imperial  court,  and  an  official 

>  Ulpian.     (XI.  Defib.  lib). 

2  Neque  humanum   fuerit  ob  rei  pecuniarias  quaestionem  libertati 
moram  fieri.    {Ulpian) 


52  GEST/l    CHRISTI 

hierarchy,  and  a  Church  supported  by  Armies  and  governed 
by  warriors  and  courtiers,  and  of  vast  populations  suddenly 
made  into  nominal  Christians — but  we  should  have  been 
saved  a  paganized  peasantry,  a  corrupt  priesthood,  a  hier- 
archy full  of  greed  and  ambition,  ages  of  blood  and 
relisfious  warfare,  and  a  Church  which  persecuted  both 
science  and  differing  opinions.  The  Christian  faith  would 
have  grown  up  where  it  belongs — in  quiet,  humble  places 
— and  have  reformed  manners  and  morals  before  it  took 
hold  of  legislation.  Christ's  principles  would  have  been  a 
spiritual  power  in  the  world,  not  a  form  or  an  institution, 
and  would  thus  have  finally  permeated  society.  So  far 
from  regarding  the  rapid  spread  of  the  Christian  religion  in 
the  Roman  world  as  a  sign  of  its  Divine  origin,  and  an 
evidence  of  its  triumph,  we  consider  it  as  almost  a  fatal 
occurrence,  and  as  having  impeded  the  spread  of  Christ's 
real  truth  ever  since. 

We  are  aware  of  the  very  strong  arguments  presented  by 
liberal  Catholic  writers  for  the  early  union  of  State  and 
Church.  It  could  not  but  be  productive  of  some  good  in  a 
barbarous  age.  But  the  present  spiritual  condition  of  a 
large  part  of  Europe,  is  a  proof  how  great  was  the  mistake 
then  made.  The  best  effect  of  this  union  was  seen  in  legis- 
lation. A  new  spirit  began  at  once  to  influence  Roman  law. 
We  only  claim  that  this  influence  would  have  been  more 
thorough  and  more  lasting  had  it  more  generally  pervaded 
society  first,  and  reached  the  law-givers  through  the  people. 

Whatever  motives  Constantine  himself  may  have  had  in 
his  change  of  faith,  the  jurists  who  framed  his  legislation 
were  evidently  inspired  and  influenced  by  Christianity. 
In  laws  relating  to  slavery,  we  hear  of  being  "imbued 
with  Christian  discipline "  ^  as  a  reason  for  humanity ;  of 

'Christiana  disci plina  imbutus.     {Cod.  Theod.,\\.  12.) 


EMANCIPATION  AS  A   RELIGIOUS  DUTY,  53 

emancipating-  in  church  with  "religious  purpose,"^  and 
numerous  other  expressions  which  indicate  the  new  forces 
working  on  the  law-givers.  The  "  Day  of  the  Lord  "  has 
become  a  day  appropriate  to  emancipation  and  to  a  rest 
from  all  litigation  ;  ^  and  emancipation  in  church  has  the 
same  legal  force  with  the  formal  emancipation  of  a  Roman 
citizen.  The  official  setting  free  of  a  slave  became  com- 
mon as  an  act  of  piety  or  gratitude  to  God  at  recovery 
from  illness,  at  the  birth  of  a  child,  at  death,  or  in  wills. 
Many  charters  and  epitaphs  bore  the  expression  of 
"  liberty  for  the  benefit  of  the  soul." 

The  Church  early  included  a  prayer  in  its  liturgy  "  for 
them  that  suffer  in  bitter  bondage."  The  burial  inscrip- 
tions and  pictures  recently  made  known,  often  show 
the  masters  standing  before  the  Good  Shepherd,  with 
a  band  of  their  slaves,  liberated  at  death,  pleading  for 
them  at  the  last  judgment.^  But  scarcely  any  Christian 
inscription  speaks  of  the  dead,  as  a  "  slave "  or  "  freed- 
man,"  but  only  of  the  "slave  of  Christ";  or  the  "  freed- 
man  of  Christ";*  as  if  human  slavery  could  not  even 
be  mentioned  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

A  series  of  remarkable  laws  under  Constantine  showed 
the  new  spirit  v/orking  upon  legislation.  In  312  A.D,  a 
law  was  passed  declaring  the  poisoning  of  a  slave  or 
the  tearing  his  body  with  the  nails  of  a  wild  beast,  or 
branding  him,  to  be  homicide.  In  314,  liberty  was 
declared  a  right  which  could  not  be  taken  away  :  sixty 
years  of  captivity  could  not  take  from  the  free-born 
Ihe   right   of  demanding   liberty.       In    316,    Constantine 

*  Religiosa  mente  in  Ecclesia.     iC.  T.,  ix.  7.) 

*  Ut  in  die  Domini,  imancipare  et  manumittere  liceat,  reliqux 
causce  vel  lites  quiescant.     (C  T.,  1.  2.     C.  3,  11.) 

^  Le  Blant,  Iiiscript.  Chret.  Acad,  de  Sc.  etc. 

*  De  Rossi,  Bull.  Arch.  Chrdt.,  1866;  and  La  Roma  sott.  Christ.^ 
torn.  iii.  1877. 


54  GESTA   CHRISTL 

writes  to  an  archbishop  :  "  It  has  pleased  me  for  a  long 
time  to  establish  that  in  the  Christian  Church,  masters 
can  give  liberty  to  their  slaves  provided  they  do  it  in 
presence  of  all  the  assembled  people  and  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Christian  priests,  and  provided  that,  in  order  to 
preserve  the  memory  of  the  fact,  some  written  document 
informs  where  they  sign  as  parties  or  as  witnesses."  ^  In 
321,  he  directs  that  "he  who  under  a  religious  feeling 
has  given  a  just  liberty  to  his  slaves  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Christian  Church,  will  be  thought  to  have  made  a 
gift  of  a  right  similar  to  Roman  citizenship."  But  this 
privilege  is  only  granted  to  those  who  emancipate  under 
the  eyes  of  the  priest.*  In  322,  various  laws  defined 
methods  by  which  persons  whose  liberty  is  assailed, 
even  after  sentence,  may  present  new  proofs  of  liberty 
and  secure  it.  ^ 

The  progress  of  legal  emancipation  under  the  Chris- 
tian emperors  was  slow  but  certain.  Each  new  ruler 
enacted  some  measure  which  made  emancipation  easier. 
The  informer  against  those  guilty  of  certain  capital 
offences,  became  free.  Theodosius  the  Great  freed  those 
who  had  been  circumcised  by  the  Jews,  and  those  who 
informed  against  a  deserter ;  and  the  emperor  Zeno, 
those  who  joined  the  monastic  life  with  the  consent  of 
their  masters. 

A  few  words  from  the  priest,  even  away  from  the 
church,  would  manumit  the  slave.* 

The  law  threw  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  separating 
families.     "Who   can   bear,"   says  the  Theodosian   Code, 

»  Cod.  Just,  lib.  vi.  tit.  1.  3. 
'  Ibid.,  lib.  i.  tit.  13,  1.  I. 

•  Ibid.,  lib.  i.  tit.  13,  1.  2.  Ibid.  Nov.  et  Cod.  Theod.,  lib.  iv. 
tit.  7, 1-  I. 

*  De  IManumissionibus  in  ecclesia.    {Ibid.,  lib.  iv.  tit.  7, 1.  2.) 


HUMANITY  TOWARDS    THE  SLAVES  $5 

"to  see  children  separated  from  parents,  brothers  from 
sisters,  wives  from  husbands  ? "  ^ 

The  master  was  held  legally  as  a  murderer,  if  by 
torture  or  branding  he  caused  death,  after  the  cruel  cus- 
toms of  the  horrid   barbarians.  ^ 

Let  the  reader  compare  this  with  the  command  of 
one  of  the  purest  of  the  Stoical  jurists.  "If  by  chance 
there  is  doubt  .  .  .  for  the  sake  of  discovering  the 
truth,  let  hereditary  slaves   be   tortured."^ 

In  441  A.D.  a  church  council  (Orange)  enacted  that 
a  slave  once  emancipated  in  church,  could  not  be  made 
either  slave  or  serf  again,  without  incurring  ecclesiastical 
censures. 

Justinian  s  Reforms. — It  is,  however,  finally  under 
Justinian  that  the  great  moral  power  of  Christianity 
begins  most  to  be  felt  in  the  Roman  law  upon  slavery. 
The  Institutes  (quoting  indeed  an  older  law)  speak  of 
that  age  as  one  of  special  humanity,  when  no  one  is  per- 
mitted to  be  cruel  to  his  slave  without  legal  authority.'* 

All  presumptions  are  to  be  now  in  "  favour  of  liberty." 
Thus  if  there  chance  to  be  several  owners  of  a  slave, 
the  will  of  any  one  could  emancipate,  and  the  others  are 
forced  to  accept  compensation  at  a  reduced  valuation.^ 

The  drift  is  everwhere  towards  "the  inestimable  value* 
of  liberty."''    Slavery  was  suppressed  as  a  penalty.    "We 

'  Quis  ferat  liberos  a  parentibus,  a  fratribus  sorores,  a  viris  con- 

juges,  segregari.     (Lib.  ii.  tit.  24.) 

2  Saevitia  immanium  barbarorum.     (Lib.  ix.  tit.  12.) 

'  Si  fortasse  de  filiis  aliqua  dubitatio  habeatur,  ut  Veritas  inveniri 

possit,  torqueri  servi  hereditarii  jubentur.     {Paul.  Sent.,  v.  16). 

*  Sed  hoc  tempore,  nuUis  hominibus  licet  sine  causa  legibus  cognitA 
in  servos  suos  supra  modum  sevire.     (//«/.,  p.  109). 

'  T.  C.  I.,  vii.  7.     De  Cormn.  Serv.  Manuni. 

•  Ouum  libertas  in^stimabilis  res  sit.     {Inst.,  I.  vi.  7). 

'  Pro  libertate,  quam  et  favere  et  tueri  Romanis  legibus  .  •  , 
peculiare  est.    {Covim  de  Manum.) 


56  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

do  not  transfer"  says  the  Imperial  law-giver,*  "persons 
from  a  free  condition  into  a  servile — we  who  have  so 
much  at  heart  to  raise  slaves  to  liberty."  He  liberates 
the  mutilated  ;  and  those  who  had  served  in  the  army 
with  the  knowledge  of  their  master,  became  as  freeborn. 
Liberty  was  a  reward  to  certain  informers  against  cer 
tain  offences.  The  marriage  of  slaves  was  strengthened, 
and  the  marriage  of  a  free  woman  with  a  foreign  slave 
was  not  forbidden  ;  a  freeman  could  marry  a  slave  woman 
by  first  freeing  her. 

A  slave  who  was  ordained  priest  became  free  by  the 
act  usually  with  the  consent  of  the  master.  The  monas- 
teries became  refuges  of  slaves.  Justinian's  Code  re- 
quired every  slave  entering  a  monastery  to  pass  a  novi- 
tiate of  three  years,  during  which  he  might  be  claimed  ; 
if  he  was  proved  guilty  of  theft,  he  was  to  be  delivered 
up  to  his  master,  but  to  suffer  no  further  injury.  If  no- 
thing was  proved  against  him,  and  he  was  not  claimed, 
at  the  end  of  three  years  he  was  considered  "to  belong 
to  the  common  Master  of  all."  A  slave-priest,  if  he  re- 
nounced his  sacred  office,   became  slave  again. 

The  old  law  had  fixed  a  limit  to  the  age  under  which 
a  bondman  could  be  freed,  and  the  number  who  could  be 
thus  emancipated  :  it  demanded  of  freedmen  a  maturity 
of  thirty  years,  and  created  different  degrees  between 
the  citizen  and  slave.  Justinian  abolished  all  this  scale. 
Legacies  and  testamentary  provisions  made  before  the 
final  will,  had  been  considered  null.  The  new  code 
changed  this  in  favour  of  liberty.  The  dying  man  in 
his  last  moments,  could  set  free  the  infant  in  the  bosom 
of  its  mother.  If  the  heir  received  directions  to  free  one 
slave,  all  became  free.     The  new  code  takes  the  smallest 

^  Nov.,  xxii.  8. 


HUMANITY   UNDER  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCE.      57 

indication  as  sign  of  the  master's  purpose  to  free  his 
slave.  The  marriage  of  the  master  with  a  bondwoman 
freed  and  legitimated  all  the  children ;  and  even  without 
marriage,  if  a  slave  had  the  position  of  wife,  she  became 
free  with  her  children,  and  equally  so  if  bequeathed  as 
a  wife  to  a  frecdman.  The  law  gave  a  new  value  to  all 
familiar  modes  of  enfranchisement,  whether  by  letter  or 
in  presence  of  friends  ;  by  abandonment,  or  by  covering 
the  slave  with  a  symbolic  bonnet  at  the  funeral  of  his 
master,  or  by  marriage.  The  code,  with  a  certain  en- 
thusiasm uncommon  in  such  dry  documents,  declared  its 
purpose  "to  have  the  Republic  frequented  by  freemen 
rather  than  liberated  slaves."  ^ 

Among  other  laws,  one  act  made  the  violation  of  a 
slave-woman  an  equal  offence  with  crime  committed  upon 
a  free — punishable  by  death.  The  moveable  property  of 
bondmen  became  their  own  property,  and  with  it  they 
often  purchased  their  liberty. 

Other  acts  made  the  killing  of  a  slave  with  malice 
aforethought,  homicide ;  and  the  death  of  a  slave  after 
certain  barbarous  punishments,  equivalent  to  the  same 
offence.  Masters  also  were  enjoined  to  send  their  sick 
and  useless  slaves  to  the  hospital.^ 

We  find,  too,  an  expression  in  the  code,  as  if  an  in- 
fluence from  the  new  Religion  of  humanity,  "  the  intuition 
of  humanity."  ^ 

Slaves  or  freedmen  could  arrive  at  the  most  important 
offices,  provided  the  masters  did  not  oppose. 

The  legal  weakening  of  slavery  proceeded  by  various 
steps,  such   as   the   forbidding   the   sale  of  new-born    in- 

'  In  nostra    Rcpublica     .     .     .     quum   nobis  cordi   est,    ingenuis 
magis  hominibus,  quam  a  libertis,  earn  frequentari.    {De  Bonis.) 
2  Cod.,  ix.  14. 
'  Dig.  XUt  ix. 


58  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

fants ;  the  introducing  new  modes  of  emancipation  bj 
the  Christian  Church  ;  the  delay  afforded  in  proof  of 
hberty  and  the  legal  presumption  in  its  favour ;  the 
privileges  granted  in  reclaiming  it,  and  many  precautions 
taken  to  prevent  slavery  from  being  used  for  purposes 
of  unchastity  and  of  crime. 

Reforms  under  other  Emperors. — Under  the  Emperor 
Leo  (717  A.D.)  all  slaves  on" imperial  domains  were  allowed 
to  do  with  their  property  as  they  chose  ;  the  law  thus  at 
once  recognising  the  ownership  of  property  by  a  large  body 
of  bondmen.  Again,  the  marriage  of  a  free  woman  and 
a  slave  was  recognised  as  legal.  The  woman  could  buy 
her  husband,  to  associate  him  in  her  liberty,  or  share  his 
servitude  till  the  death  of  the  master,  which  at  once 
freed  them  and  their  children  ;  or  the  man  could  free 
himself  by  labour  for  a  term  of  years,  which  term  was 
fixed  by  law.  The  same  rules  applied  to  slave  marriage, 
if  one  of  the  parties  became  free.  Many  Christian  freed- 
men  married  noble-born  women  (feminae  clarissimae^). 
One  great  source  of  slavery  was  dried  up  in  this  age  of 
"  misery  "  by  a  law  forbidding  a  freeman  to  alienate  his 
liberty.  Other  acts  encouraged  emancipation.  A  slave- 
child  held  over  the  sacred  font  of  baptism  by  the  master, 
his  wife  or  son,  became  free  in  the  act.  A  servant  taken 
prisoner  by  the  enemy,  was  lost  to  his  master;  and  if  he 
was  returned  to  Roman  territory,  he  became  a  freeman, 
provided  he  had  suffered  in  the  public  service.  By  a  law 
under  Basil  {^6y)  it  was  declared  that  if  a  property  reverted 
to  the  state,  the  slaves  in  it  became  free,  If  a  man  died 
intestate,  two-thirds  of  his  property  fell  to  his  natural  heirs, 
and  one-third  went  to  the  state  :  in  this  one-third  were 
reckoned  the  slaves,   who  thus    became  free.     "  It  would 

*  De  llossi,  La  Rotna  soii.  Renan,  AT.  Aur.,c.  11.  Tertull.,  Ad 
uxor.,  1 1,  8. 


GRADUAL  EMANCIPATION.  59 

be  an  outrage,"  says  the  law,  "  to  the  holiness  of  God- 
to  the  wisdom  of  the  prince,  and  to  the  conscience  of 
man,  not  to  permit  the  death  of  the  master  to  break  the 
yoke  of  servitude." 

In  the  tenth  century  the  state  preserved  a  right  over 
the  sale  of  prisoners  and  of  slaves.  In  1098,  Alexius 
Comnenus  was  obliged  to  invoke  the  great  principle  of 
Christianity,  "  One  God,  one  Faith,  one  Baptism,"  and 
order  all  slaves  to  be  freed  to  whom  their  masters  had 
refused  the  benediction  of  the  Christian  Church.  Legisla- 
tion became  more  severe  against  bondage  :  the  bondman 
could  produce  witnesses  in  favour  of  his  freedom  and 
opposing  testimony  was  not  received.  If  a  person  was 
claimed  as  a  slave  and  could  produce  witnesses  of  good 
character  in  his  favour,  his  oath  could  annul  the  suit 
(1094  A.D.).  Manuel  I.  (1143)  proclaimed  freedom  to  all 
fallen  into  slavery  through  the  sale  of  property,  or  who 
had  been  forced  to  sell  themselves  from  reasons  of 
poverty. 

Slavery  is  alluded  to  in  the  Eastern  empire  in  1344, 
1358,  and  1394.     It  existed  in  Greece  till  1437. 

Among  other  terrible  results  of  the  pauperism  of  the 
Roman  empire,  the  masters  were  in  the  habit  of  forcing 
freemen  to  contracts  which  alienated  their  independence. 
To  check  this,  Manuel  Comnenus  declared  free  all  who 
had  been  born  in  liberty. 

In  the  ninth  century,  as  we  stated  before,  is  the  first 
formal  mention  of  a  command  of  the  Church  against 
slavery  itself.  They  are  the  words  of  St.  Theodore  of 
Stude.  "  Thou  shalt  possess  no  slave,  neither  for  domestic 
service  nor  for  the  work  of  the  fields  ;  for  man  is  made 
in  the  image  of  God." 

No  one  can  carefully  study  this  long  series  of  laws,  from 
Constantine   to   the  tenth  century,  in   regard  to  slavery. 


6o  GESTA   CHRISTl. 

without  clearly  seeing  the  effect  of  Christianity.  It  is 
true  that  the  unjust  institution  still  survived,  and  some 
of  its  cruel  features  remained ;  but  all  through  this  period 
the  new  spirit  of  humanity  is  seen  struggling  against  it, 
even  in  legislation,  which  is  always  the  last  to  feel  a  new 
moral  power  in  society.  The  very  language  of  the  acts 
speaks  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Christian  faith ;  and  the 
idea  which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  reforms,  the  value 
of  each  individual,  and  his  equality  to  all  others  in  the 
sight  of  God,  was  essentially  Christian. 

But  laws  are  often  far  behind  the  practices  of  a  com- 
munity. The  foundation  idea  of  Christ's  principles  com- 
pelled his  followers  to  recognise  the  slave  as  equal  with 
the  master.  They  sat  side  by  side  in  church,  and  partook 
of  the  communion  together.  By  the  civil  law,  a  master 
killing  his  slave  accidentally  by  excessive  punishment, 
was  not  punished  ;  but  in  the  church,  he  was  excluded 
from  communion.  The  chastity  of  the  slave  was  strictly 
guarded  by  the  church  ;  slave-priests  were  free.  The 
festivals  of  religion — the  Sundays,  fast-days  and  days  of 
joy — were  early  connected  in  the  Church  with  the  eman- 
cipation of  those  in  servitude.  The  consoling  words  of 
Christ,  repeated  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  the  hope  which 
now  dawned  on  the  world  through  Him,  became  the 
especial  comfort  of  that  great  multitude  of  unhappy 
persons, — the  Roman  bondsmen.  The  Christian  teachers 
and  clergymen  became  known  as  "  the  brothers  of  the 
slave " :  ^  and  the  slaves  themselves  were  called  "  the 
freedmen  of  Christ."  ^ 

1  Lactantius,  Dei  hist.,  lib.  v.  Also  St.  Chrys.  {Horn.)  (xxii.  in 
Ep.  ad  Ej)h.)  No  Christian  is  a  slave  ;  those  born  again  are  all 
brothers.  *  Acta  Si.  Justin. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SLAVES  IN  CRUEL  AND   LICENTIOUS  SPORTS 

The  full  power  of  Christianity  over  Roman  slavery  can 
only  be  fully  recognised  by  also  studying  its  influence  on 
the  cruel  or  licentious  shows  and  games,  for  which  the 
slaves  especially  furnished  the  victims  and  the  debauched 
actors. 

The  highest  gratification  which  an  eminent  Roman  could 
furnish  to  the  populace,  was  in  some  bloody  or  licentious 
show.  The  Stoics  spoke  of  the  gladiatorial  games  with 
contempt  or  reproval,  but  their  censure  never  reached  the 
masses. 

Cicero  asks  how  a  cultivated  man  can  possibly  take 
pleasure  in  seeing  a  weak  man  torn  by  a  strong  animal, 
or  a  splendid  brute  transfixed  by  the  spear  of  a  well-armed 
gladiator :  ^  and  Tacitus  dismisses  the  cruel  Drusus,  in 
one  of  his  condensed  epithets,  as  rejoicing  too  much  in 
cheap  blood  :^  Caesar  is  said  to  have  had  320  pairs  of 
gladiators  at  once  in  the  arena,  and  to  add  to  the  scenic 
effect,  the  bloody  struggles  were  at  night. 

Trajan  surpassed  all  in  forcing  10,000  unhappy  prisoners 
and  gladiators  to  contend  for  life  in  the  Roman  amphi- 
theatre; the  bloody  and  brutal  sport  lasted  123  days. 

*  Sed  quse  potest  homini  esse    polito  delectatio,  quum   aut  homo 
imbecillus  a  valentissima  bestia  laniatur  etc.     (Ad  Dir.) 
^  Vili  sanguine  nimio  gaudens.     {Ann.,  i,  76.) 

61 


62  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

Constantine,  in  the  very  year  before  his  acceptance  of 
Christianity,  exposed  a  vast  multitude  of  prisoners  to  wild 
beasts  in  the  amphitheatre,  and  glutted  the  people  with 
the  sight  of  blood.^  Under  the  thorough  reform  which 
Christian  teaching  has  introduced  in  the  world,  in  the 
matter  of  bloody  sports,  we  cannot  conceive  the  passion 
for  them  among  the  Roman  populace,  a  passion  which 
centuries  of  teaching  and  example  scarcely  broke  up. 

It  is  related  of  one  Prefect  of  Rome,  Symmachus  (392 
A.D.),  that  he  desired  to  make  a  special  celebration  of  a 
birthday  of  his  little  son  (parvuli  nostri)  and  for  that  pur- 
pose held  in  reserve  a  large  troop  of  Saxon  prisoners,  who 
were  to  be  slaughtered  by  wild  animals  in  the  arena.  To 
the  intense  disappointment  of  the  populace  and  the  grief 
of  the  Prefect,  our  savage  ancestors,  on  the  very  day  of  the 
hoped-for  festival,  all  strangled  each  other  (fractas  sine 
laqueo  fauces).  The  worthy  Prefect  could  only  resign 
himself  to  the  consolations  of  philosophy."  It  was  re- 
served for  a  Christian  to  remind  this  philosopher  of  his 
brutality,  in  the  well-put  apopthegm  :  "  No  one  should 
perish  in  the  city  whose  punishment  is  an  amusement."  ' 

It  was  the  peculiar  duty  of  Roman  magistrates  to 
provide  cruel  sports  for  the  people ;  many  made  a  trade 
of  it. 

The  early  Christians  and  the  Fathers  waged  a  continual 
struggle  against  these  bloody  shows.  So  strong  was  the 
passion  for  them,  that  it  is  related  by  Augustine  of  one 
convert,  that  he  was  forced  to  the  spectacle  by  his  family, 
but   carefully  covered  his   eyes,  when   a  shout  from  the 

'  Tantam  captivoriim  multitudinem  bestiis  objecit,  etc.     {Pan.  Con. 

Aug..  23,  A.D.  313.) 

^   Sequor  sapientis  e.xemplum.     {Symm.  Ep.,  n,  46.) 

^   NuUus  in  urbe  cadat,  cujus  sit  poena  voluptas.     {frud.  contra 

Symm.,  li,  1126.) 


BLOODY  SHOWS.  63 

multitude  caused  him  to  open  them  in  the  midst  of  some 
bloody  scene,  and  immediately  the  old  savage  thirst  for 
blood  was  aroused,  and  he  became  as  wildly  eager  for 
slaughter  as  the  heathen  Romans,  and  henceforth  was  an 
outcast  from  the  Church.^  Even  as  late  as  the  time  of 
Salvian  (450  A.D.)  the  converts  were  led  away  to  these 
shows,  and  this  great  preacher  thunders  against  those 
renegade  Christians  who  find  their  highest  pleasure  in 
seeing  men  die  in  the  arena,  or,  what  was  worse  than 
death,  torn  and  eaten  by  wild  beasts.^  In  the  East  the 
cruel  games  ceased  with  the  reign  of  Theodosius,  though 
combats  of  beasts  still  continued.  Their  final  abolition 
in  the  West,  by  the  heroism  of  the  monk  Telemachus 
(404),  who  leaped  into  the  arena  and  gave  his  own  life  for 
the  victims,  is  well  known. 

The  first  effect  of  the  new  spirit  on  legislation  is  seen 
in  a  law  of  Constantine,  as  early  as  325  A.D.  "  Bloody 
spectacles,"  he  says,  "  in  our  present  state  of  civil  tran- 
quillity and  domestic  peace,  do  not  please  us,  wherefore 
we  order  that  all  gladiators  be  prohibited  from  carrying 
on  their  profession."  ^ 

He  also  forbade  criminals  to  be  sent  to  the  amphi- 
theatre,— a  practice  he  had  formally  sanctioned  ten  years 
before. 

'  Confessions,  lib.  vi.  8.  For  so  soon  as  he  saw  that  blood,  he 
drank  down  savageness  ;  nor  turned  away,  but  fixed  his  eyes,  drinking 
in  phrensy  and  madness,  and  was  delighted  with  that  guilty  fighting 
and  intoxicated  with  the  bloody  pastime.  Nor  was  he  now  the  man 
he  came,  but  one  of  the  throng  he  came  unto  ;  yea,  a  true  associate 
of  them  that  brought  him  hither. 

2  Ubi  summum  deliciorum  genus  est  mori  homines,  aut  quod  morte 
gravius,  acerbiusque,  lacerari,  expleri  ferarum  alvos  humanis  carni- 
bus.     {De  Glib.  Dei.,  vi.) 

*  Cruenta  spectacula  in  otio  civili  et  domestica  quiete,  non 
placuit  ;  qua  propter  omnino  gladiatoies  esse  prohibemus.  {Cod, 
Theod.^  Ixv.  tit.  12,  L  I.) 


64  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

Human  Sacrifices. — Besides  the  influence  of  Christi- 
anity on  bloody  sports,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  in 
the  Roman  empire,  and  wherever  it  has  had  sway,  it 
has  done  away  with  human  sacrifices.  Whenever,  in  the 
earlier  history,  dangers  approached  Rome,  foreign  captives 
were  burned  in  the  forum,  though  at  the  same  period  a 
poet  could  say  that  God  was  ever  gentle  and  kindred  to 
man.^  Even  in  the  time  of  Pliny  there  were  sacrifices  of 
human  beings,  though  Seneca  was  proclaiming  that  "  man 
ought  to  be  sacred  to  man."  ^  Still  later,  emperors  like 
Commodus  and  Elagabalus  believed  that  they  gave  the 
highest  pleasure  to  the  gods  by  sacrificing  children  of 
noble  birth  and  beauty. 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  such  cruelties  passed  away 
under  the  faintest  light  from  the  Religion  of  Love.  Not 
only  in  the  Roman  empire,  but  in  all  countries  where 
Christianity  has  any  influence,  have  these  barbarities  ac- 
companying the  religious  sentiment  ceased  to  exist. 

Licentious  Shoivs. — The  cruel  sports  of  Rome  were  not 
the  only  source  of  the  degradation  of  Roman  society. 
The  exhibition  of  licentious  shows  and  immoral  plays  had 
a  profound  influence.  The  extremes  to  which  these  were 
carried  cannot  even  be  explained  in  modern  writings.  In 
fact,  few  classical  scholars  who  have  not  waded  through  the 
disgusting  mire  of  a  large  part  of  Roman  literature,  can 
have  even  an  idea  of  the  depth  of  obscenity  and  immor- 
ality which  it  reached.  Athenaeus,  Petronius,  Apuleius  (in 
his  lighter  works),  Juvenal,  and  many  others,  only  show 
how  debased  even  genius  and  talent  may  become  under 
such  influences  as  so  much  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
religions  furnished.  Even  the  universal  suffering  and  ruin 
of   the  Roman    empire   had    no   influence   on   the  public 

'  Mite  et  cognatum  est  homini  Deus.     {Silius,  iv.  J^^.) 
2  BoissUr. 


FEELINGS   OF   THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS.  65 

appetite  for  these  enjoyments.  In  Salvian's  bitter  epi- 
gram, the  empire  "ridet  et  moritur,"  laughs  while  it  is 
dying. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  early  Christians  came  to  have 
towards  these  shows  somewhat  of  the  feelings  which  the 
English  Puritans  entertained  towards  all  dramatic  exhibi- 
tions. They  were  not  only  offensive  to  the  new  ideas 
of  purity  spreading  through  the  world,  but  they  were 
products  of  and  associated  with  the  idolatrous  faith  of 
the  day.  The  Fathers  and  early  disciples  set  themselves 
especially  to  free  great  classes  of  human  beings  who  were 
the  peculiar  victims  of  these  degrading  customs — the 
slaves  of  the  stage. 

The  effect  of  their  spirit  even  upon  a  half-converted 
Roman,  like  Constantino,  is  striking.  Much  of  his  legis- 
lation has  the  sound  of  Puritan  rigidity  and  purity.  A 
public  show  of  the  most  indecent  description,  a  great 
favourite  with  the  populace,  called  Maiiiina,  wherein, 
among  other  licentiousness,  nude  women  bathed  before  the 
crowd,  was  utterly  forbidden  and  denounced  as  "  foedum 
atque  indecorum  spectaculum";  yet,  says  wisely  the  law, 
"  we  allow  ludicrous  arts  to  be  practised,  lest  sadness  be 
produced  by  excessive  restriction."  ^  111385  several  laws 
were  passed  against  the  profession  of  female  musicians, 
who  were  frequently  seduced,  and  whose  business  was  a 
means  of  vice.  Theodosius  forbade  judges  and  magistrates 
to  be  present  at  theatrical  shows  after  noon,  for  it  was 
in  that  part  of  the  day  that  indecent  plays  were  exhibited. 
At  length  all  spectacles  were  forbidden  on  Sunday,  and 
the  prohibition  was  extended  still  further  to  saints'  days 
by  Theodosius  III.  A  general  endeavour  appears  in  all 
this  legislation  to  withdraw  from  such  professions  all  whom 

^  Ludicros  artes  concedimus  agitari,  ne  ex  nimia  harum  restric- 
tione,  tristia  ^encretur.     {Cod.  Theod.^  Ixx.  tit,  6.  1.  2.) 


66  GESTA    CHRISTL 

poverty  or  slavery  kept  in  them.  In  343  a  law  forbade 
procurers  from  selling  Christian  female  slaves  to  any 
except  to  Christian  masters,^  and  authorized  priests  and 
all  Christians  summarily  to  deliver  any  Christian  women 
who  were  about  to  be  handed  over  to  prostitution,* 
and  on  their  complaint  they  could  be  brought  before  the 
court  and  delivered  from  misery.  No  Christian  woman, 
free  or  slave,  could  be  forced  to  serve  as  a  prostitute 
on  the  stage  ;  and  if  a  slave,  could  be  freed  at  once  on 
appeal. 

It  may  here  be  remarked,  that  in  439  a  law  of  Theo- 
dosius  suppressed  the  profession  of  the  Icno,  or  "  procurer," 
in  Constantinople ;  though  no  legislation  could  cure  the 
deep-seated  disease  of  Roman  society. 

Under  Constantine,  the  crime  of  violence  upon  a  woman 
which  had  formerly  been  punished  only  when  the  victim 
demanded  redress,  and  was  then  considered  merely  as  a 
loss  of  services  or  property  inflicted  on  the  father  of  the 
woman,  received  now  the  penalty  of  death,  even  if  the 
one  injured  did  not  bring  action. 

Justiniaiis  Refonns. — The  Roman  law,  as  codified  under 
Justinian,  shows  a  still  greater  disposition  to  deliver  all 
Christians  who  were  bound  to  these  foul  trades.^  In 
case  of  approaching  death,  it  was  provided  that  if  the  last 
sacraments  were  administered,  and  still  the  slaves  of  the 
stage  recovered,  then  these  women  were  freed  from  their 


1  Cod.  Theod.,  Ixv.  tit.  18,  I.4. 

^  Lenones,  patres  et  dominos  qui  suis  filiis  vel  ancillis  peccande 
necessitatem  imponunt  nee  jure  frui  domini,  nee  tanti  criminis 
libertate  gaudere.     {Cod.  Theod.,  Ixv.  tit.  8,  1.  26.) 

^  Quaecunque  ex  his  jus  modi /^^^  progenit^,  seenica  offieio  decli- 
nare    .     .     .     deputentur.     {Cod.  'J'/ieod.,  xv.) 

Quicumque  Christianus  sit  in  quolibet  crimine  deprehensus,  lud« 
non  adjucitur.     {Cod.  Theod.,  ix.  40.) 


LICENTIOUSNESS  RESTRAINED.  67 

bonds  to  the  theatre.  But  even  then,  public  officials  were 
bound  to  sit  in  judgment  as  to  their  need  of  the  last 
sacraments.  The  stern  Roman  law  held  them  bound  to 
these  degrading  occupations  by  a  "  natural  bond."  They 
were  not  even  considered  worthy  of  suffering  the  penalties 
of  adultery.  The  Christian  law  forbade  them  to  be  taken 
back  to  the  stage  if  they  had  become  Christians  and  were 
leading  a  worthy  life.^  If,  however,  they  fell  again  into 
their  old  vices,  they  were  forced  to  retake  their  old  pro- 
fession, and  could  be  absolved  from  it  no  more  until  old 
age  drove  them  from  the  stage.  Justinian  also  declared  all 
engagements  retaining  women  by  force  on  the  stage  as 
null  and  void.  The  archbishops  were  required,  in  union 
with  the  magistrates,  to  watch  over  the  execution  of  this 
law. 

When  at  length  these  unfortunate  women,  slaves  of 
sensuality,  were  excluded  from  the  public  stage,  they  were 
employed  in  private  festivals,  until  Theodosius  was  com- 
pelled to  forbid  by  law  women  from  being  sold  or  trained 
for  these  social  entertainments.  Even  as  late  as  the 
eleventh  century,  the  Council  of  France  condemned  the 
presence  of  the  clergy  at  fetes  where  such  professional 
actors  were  employed. 

The  Church  carefully  excluded  from  communion  all  who 
had  any  connection  with  licentious  sports  ;  and  so  powerful 
was  the  new  feeling  of  purity,  that  even  obscene  statues  in 
public  places  were  forbidden  by  law.^ 

It  is  a  part  of  this  new  reign  of  chastity  and  humanity, 
that  the  employment  of  mutilated  persons,  as  attendants, 
was  forbidden  by  the   Church,  and  the  maiming  of  them 

'  Qiias  melior  vivendi  usus  vinculo  nahiralis  conditionis  evolvit, 
retrahi  vetamus.     {Cod.  Th.,  xv.) 

*  Neque  unquam  posthac  liceat  in  loco  honesto  inhonestas  adstari 
personas.     {Cod.  Th.,  xv.) 


68  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

was  attended  with  the  severest  penalties.  A  slave  muti- 
lated became  free.^ 

The  early  Christians  not  only  attacked  and  weakened 
slavery  by  freeing  this  unfortunate  class,  who  were  bound 
to  licentious  professions,  but  their  spirit  of  humanity  led 
to  a  ransoming  of  captives,  which  assumed  considerable 
importance.  The  laws  encouraged  this  in  the  highest 
degree.  The  Theodosian  Code  especially  exhorts  Christians 
who  are  near  these  captives,  to  take  pains  in  regard  to 
their  redemption  ;~  and  the  commentator  speaks  of  the 
'•ansoming  of  prisoners  as  an  act  of  special  generosity.^ 
Whole  populations  were  ransomed,  and  it  became  one  of 
the  first  duties  of  the  Church  "to  set  the  captive  free." 
The  wealth  of  private  individuals,  and  the  treasures  of 
the  churches,  were  continually  used  for  this  purpose.  One 
saint  (Paul)  is  said  to  have  delivered  himself  up  to  slavery 
for  the  sake  of  saving  the  son  of  a  widow  from  captivity. 

It  was  a  favourite  proverb  that  "  to  buy  a  slave  is  to  gain 
a  soul."  4 

The  Christians  equally  dried  up  another  source  of  slavery 
by  steadily  and  consistently  opposing,  as  we  shall  show 
later,  the  abandonment  and  exposition  of  children.  Their 
charity,  also,  constantly  saved  fcimilics  from  the  depths  of 
pauperism  which  were  opening  ;  for,  as  the  eloquent  Salvian 
says,  the  Roman  state  in  the  fifth  century,  owing  to  its 
wasteful  financial  system  and  eno;mous  taxation,  was 
"dying  as  if  of  strangulation."  ^     The  tendency,  too,  of  the 

'  Novell.,  cxlii. 

2  Christirinos  proximorum  locoriim,  voliimus  hujus  rei  solicitu- 
dinem  gerere.     {Cod.  Theod.  v.  5,  i.) 

3  PriEcipua  liberalitas  redimere  captivos. 
*  Const.  Apost.,  1 1,  62. 

'  Quum  Romana  republica,  vel  jam  mortua,  vel  certe  extremum 
spirilum  agens  ,  .  .  tributorum  vinculis,  quasi  manibus  stranj;ulata, 
moriatur    {De  Gub.  Dei,  iv.  i.) 


REHABILITATION  OF  LABOUR.  69 

Christian  belief  must  have  continually  raised  the  poor  by 
elevating  their  sense  of  their  own  dignity — a  sense  which 
in  all  ages  has  worked  against  the  degrading  tendencies  of 
poverty,  and  would  therefore  preserve  a  population  from 
falling  into  slavery.  Christ  and  the  Apostles  taught,  by 
example  and  words,  the  value  and  dignity  of  labour ;  and 
a  cardinal  doctrine  of  Christian  morals  was  the  importance 
of  industry.  The  word  operative  {pperarins)  became  ele- 
vated in  public  esteem,  and  Christian  working  men  and 
women  are  praised  in  the  epitaphs  for  being  good  workers.^ 
In  fact,  throughout  the  Roman  empire  a  grand  rehabi- 
litation of  labour  began  under  Christianity,  which  has 
never  ceased.  All  the  useless  servants  of  Roman  society 
— the  parasite,  the  pimp,  the  circus  rider,  the  gladiator, 
the  debauched  actor,  the  representative  of  indecent  amuse- 
ments, the  servant  of  idols,  the  object  of  disgusting  and 
unnatural  pleasures,  the  low  and  obscene  comedian  and 
prostitute — were  changed  by  the  new  Faith  into  industrious 
producers  and  workers.-  Work  became  honoured  under 
the  new  religion.  Christ  was  reproached  by  the  assailants 
of  Christianity  as  being  born  of  a  "  working  mother " 
(operariae  matris) ;  and  the  Christian  ecclesicB  became  little 
fraternities  of  free  labourers  and  competitors  of  the  great 
slave-estates,^ 

We  have  already  remarked  that  the  word  servus^ 
seldom  occurs  on  a  Christian  epitaph ;  as  if  the  believer 
felt  that  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  all  were  free.  A 
slave,  when  examined  before  a  judge,  not  unfrequently 
replied,  "  I  am  not  a  slave  :  I  am  a  Christian — Christ  has 
freed  me."  ^ 

'  De  Rossi,  "  Amatrix  pauperorum  et  operaria." 

^  See  Allard,  Les  Esclaves  CJwet. 

■  See  De  Rossi,  La  Roma  softer.  Chriif.,  tomo  iii.  1877 

*  Le  Blant,  Inscr.  Chrdt.,  etc.,  i.,  119.  '  Ibid. 


70  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

All  these  profound  moral  and  legal  influences  worked 
ap^ainst  Roman  slavery.  But  the  fearful  "  misery  "  of  the 
empire  still  sustained  it.  So  profoundly  was  Roman 
society  disorganized  by  its  own  vices,  by  bad  govern- 
ment, absurd  finance,  civil  war,  the  invasion  of  barbarians, 
and  universal  poverty  among  the  working  classes,  that 
bondage  became  often  the  least  of  many  evils  threaten- 
ing. 

Serfdom. — In  such  universal  disorder,  it  is  not  unnatural 
that  an  intermediate  state  should  have  formed  itself  be- 
tween freedom  and  servitude.  The  peasants  and  poor 
farmers  would  find  themselves  safer  under  the  protection 
of  a  larger  cultivator,  to  whom  they  bound  themselves 
for  certain  obligations  ;  or  the  state  settled  such  colonists 
{coloni)  on  the  large  farms,  holding  them  bound  to  the  soil, 
but  with  many  personal  rights  ;  or,  under  these  moral 
forces  of  which  we  have  been  speaking,  the  personal  slave 
was  gradually  transformed  into  the  serf  bound  to  the 
soil. 

The  serfs  or  coloni  began  to  appear  after  Constantine  ; 
they  were  especially  found  on  the  frontiers  of  the  em- 
pire, and  in  the  Gauls,  Thrace  and  Illyria.  They  were 
sold  with  the  land  ;  their  only  obligation  being  a  small 
rent.  They  could  make  contracts,  marry,  and  even  acquire 
property  under  certain  conditions. 

Yet  the  new  law,  modified  by  Christianity,  protected 
even  the  serfs.  Justinian  was  careful  not  to  accept  the 
avowals  of  coloni  who  would  become  adscriptitii, — those 
more  closely  bound  to  the  soil  and  liable  to  a  tribute, — 
but  demanded  other  testimony,  lest  "freemen  might  fall 
into  an  inferior  state  "  from  temporary  misfortune.  He 
abolished  also  the  legal  distinction  which  existed  be- 
tween three  different  classes  of  freedmen,  making  them 
all  equal  before  the  Roman  law.     A  slave  became  at  once 


OTHER  INFLUENCES  ON  SLAVERY.  71 

free  by  any   act  of  his  owner  signifying  an  intention  of 
bestowing  freedom.^ 

It  is  of  course  understood  that  many  material  and  even 
economical  causes  combined  with  such  a  moral  power  as 
Christianity  to  mitigate  and  overthrow  an  ancient  abuse, 
like  Roman  slavery.  The  province  of  the  moral  forces 
is  to  stimulate  the  conscience  and  sympathies  ;  the  result 
may  be  hastened  or  long  delayed  by  external  influences. 

'  Nullo  nee  setatis  manumisse,  nee  dominii  manumitteiitis,  nee  ia 
modo  manumissionis  discrimine  habita     (C.  71,  xix.  17, 1.) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EXPOSURE  OF  CHILDREN. 

Slavery  in  the  Roman  world,  as  we  have  said,  was  In 
part  sustained  by  a  practice  so  revolting  and  inhuman  as 
hardly  to  be  comprehensible  to  modern  ideas — the  sys- 
tematic exposure  or  abandonment  of  the  children  of  the 
poor,  and  of  female  or  defective  children  by  the  rich.  So 
completely  had  luxury  eaten  away  the  natural  instincts 
in  one  class,  and  so  deep  and  degrading  was  the  misery  in 
another,  that  parents  were  found  willing  continually  to 
abandon  their  offspring  to  the  worst  of  destinies,  in  order 
to  escape  inconvenience,  anxiety  or  burden  ; — these  little 
ones,  be  it  remembered,  being  not  usually  the  fruit  of 
illicit  connections,  but  the  children  of  legal  marriage. 

One  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  natural  instincts  and 
affections  was,  throughout  a  wide  multitude,  utterly  sub- 
verted by  the  low  moral  tone  of  the  then  civilized  world. 
There  are  innumerable  allusions  to  this  inhuman  treatment 
of  young  children  throughout  Latin  literature.  In  two 
different  comedies  or  dialogues,  the  husband  on  starting 
upon  a  journey  is  represented  as  ordering  his  wife  who  is 
soon  to  give  birth  to  a  babe,  to  destroy  it,  if  it  prove  a 
girl  ;  and  the  plot  of  one  turns  on  the  wife's  foolish  weak- 
ness in  exposing  rather  than  killing  the  female  infant.^ 
It  has  often  been  observed  that  the  famous  apopthegm  of 

'  Apuleius,  Met.,  lib.  x.  Terence,  Andr.,  Act  iv.  scene  5.  Heaui., 
Act  iii.  scene  5. 

n 


EXPOSURE   OF  CHILDREN.  73 

humanity,  "I  am  a  man,  and  nothing  of  man  is  foreign  to 
me,"  which  called  out  such  applause  in  the  Roman  theatre, 
is  uttered  in  this  play  by  the  very  father  who  had  rebuked 
the  mother  for  thus  sparing  the  child. 

Plautus,^  alludes  to  the  custom  of  exposing  the  girl  to 
death,  without  any  especial  condemnation.  Lucian  speaks 
of  it  in  his  "  Courtesans." 

Stobaeus  ^  says  :  "  The  poor  man  raises  his  sons,  but  the 
daughters,  even  if  one  is  poor,  we  expose."  Quintilian's 
apopthegm  is  that,  "  to  kill  a  man  is  often  held  to  be 
a  crime,  but  to  kill  one's  own  children  is  sometimes 
considered  a  beautiful  action  among  the  Romans  ; "  and 
he  admits  that  the  exposed  little  ones  rarely  survive.' 
Ovid  gives  a  pathetic  picture  of  the  new  born  whose  first 
day  was  its  last,  exposed  to  wild  beasts ;  and  describes 
those  who  flit  about  in  the  night,  seeking  for  these  un- 
fortunate little  creatures  for  the  worst  of  purposes.*  Pliny  ^ 
speaks  coolly  of  those  who  hunt  for  the  brains  and  marrow 
of  infants,  probably  for  superstitious  or  medicinal  pur- 
poses. 

Seneca  gives  this  horrible  description  of  the  mutilation 
to  which  unfortunate  children  were  exposed :  "  Portentos 
foetus  extinguimus  ;  liberos  quoque  si  debiles,  monstrosi- 
que  editi  sunt,  mergimus.  Non  ira,  sed  ratio  est,  a  sanis, 
inutilia  secernere."  (Monstrous  offspring  we  destroy ; 
children  too,  if  weak  and  unnaturally  formed  from  birth, 
we  drown.  It  is  not  anger,  but  reason,  thus  to  separate 
the  useless  from  the  sound.)     {De  Ira,  I.  15.) 

'   Dat  earn  puellam   ei    servo  exponendam    ad   necem.     (Act  L 
scene  3.) 
'  Serm.y  75. 
»  Quint.  DeCy  306,  vi. 

Ovid.,  Fast.,  vi.  91,  Her.  Ep.  xi. 

•  Alii  medullas  crurum  quaerunt,  et  cerebrorum  infantum.  (JPlm. 
Hist.  Nat.,  lib.  28,  c  2,) 


74  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

In  another  work  {Controversi,  lib.  v.,  33)  he  denounces 
the  horrible  practice,  common  in  Rome,  of  maiming  these 
unfortunate  children,  and  then  offering  them  to  the  gaze 
of  the  compassionate.  He  describes  the  miserable  little 
creatures,  with  shortened  limbs,  broken  joints  and  curved 
backs,  exhibited  by  the  villanous  beggars  who  had  gathered 
them  at  the  Lactarian  column,  and  then  deformed  them  : 
"  Volo  nosse,"  "  I  should  like  to  know,"  says  the  moralist, 
with  a  burst  of  human  indignation,  "  illam  calamitatum 
humanarum  ofhcinam — illud  infantum  spoliarium  !" — "that 
workshop  of  human  misfortunes — those  shambles  of  in- 
fants ! " 

On  the  day  that  Germanicus  died,  says  Suetonius 
{Calig.,  n.  5),  "  Subversae  Deiim  arae,  partus  conjugum 
expositi,"  parents  exposed  their  new  born  babes. 

The  little  ones  thus  abandoned  were  gathered,  some- 
times by  witches,  to  use  their  bodies  in  incantations,  or 
more  frequently  by  slave-dealers,  to  train  as  female  slaves 
or  prostitutes.  In  the  dialogue  by  Terence,  to  which  we 
have  alluded,  the  father  (Chremes)  while  reproaching  the 
mother  for  not  killing  the  child,  says,  "  What  did  you 
propose  to  do  ?  What  did  you  desire  ?  Consider,  you 
would  have  abandoned  your  daughter  to  that  old  witch ! 
That  is  clear  enough.  To  make  her,  by  your  help,  a  slave 
or  a  prostitute  !  "^ 

The  exposure  in  Rome  was  commonly  made  by  night, 
near  the  Lactarian  column,  and  in  the  Velabrum,  a  parish 
or  district  in  the  city,  near  Mount  Aventine.  Though 
the  father  often  designed  the  death  of  the  infant,  yet 
some  benevolent  persons  now  and  then  rescued  a  child, 
who  became  afterwards  distinguished.    Several  instances  of 

-   Quam  bene  viro  abste  prospectum  est?  quid  voluisti  ?  cogita! 
Nempe  anni  illi  prodita  abste  filia  est  planissime  ; 
Per  te  veluti  auaestum  faceret,  velubi  veniret  palaiu 


STOICAL   PROTESTS.  75 

this  are  given  by  classic  historians.  Quintihan  calls  on 
his  readers  to  imagine  the  pitiable  fate  of  the  abandoned 
child,  exposed  to  birds  of  prey  and  wild  beasts ;  ^  and 
Juvenal  pictures  the  fine  lady  of  the  day  going  to  the 
Velabrum,  to  find  some  infant  whom  she  can  substitute 
for  her  own, — in  vain  expected, — and  thus  secure  some 
inheritance.^ 

With  this  practice  was  intimately  connected  the  custom 
of  destroying  life  in  its  germ,  which  was  so  common  in 
Roman  wealthy  society.  We  need  not  adduce  proofs  of 
this  well-known  crime. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  instinct  of  humanity 
before  Christianity  was  utterly  silent  as  to  these  cruel  or 
pernicious  habits  and  practices.  A  Stoical  jurist,  Julius 
Paulus,  in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Severus  (222-225  A.D.), 
though  he  could  not  directly  say  that  these  offences  were 
contrary  to  law,  yet  ventured  to  pronounce  the  mother 
who  destroyed  life  in  the  womb,  or  who  refused  nourish- 
ment, or  exposed  her  offspring  in  public  places,  as  equally 
guilty  of  murder.^ 

The  Stoical  philosophers,  rhetoricians,  historians,  and 
even  the  poets,  pleaded  or  declaimed  incessantly  against 
these  crimes.  They  knew  the  right.  Yet  here,  as  in  so 
many  other  instances  in  antiquity,  there  was  a  fatal  want  of 
power  to  carry  out  the  good  instincts  into  practical  action. 
The  overwhelming  poverty  of  the  empire  led  the  poor 
incessantly  to  these  offences,  and  the  rich  had  found  no 
sufficient  impulse  in  the  maxims  of  Stoicism  to  resist  the 

'  Vos  ponite  ante  oculos  puerum  statim  neglectum  ;  cui  mori  domi 
expediret,  inde  nudum  corpus,  sub  ccelo,  inter  feras  et  volucres. 
{Dec,  306.) 

-  Sat.,  vi.  605. 

3  Necare  videtur  non  tantum  is  qui  partum  perfocat,  sed  is  qui 
abjecit  et  qui  alimonia  denegat,  et  is  qui  p  blicis  locis,  misericordise 
causa,  exponit,  quam  ipse  non  habet. 


76  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

enticements  of  a  selfish  cruelty.  Some  of  the  more 
humane  of  the  Roman  emperors,  as  we  have  described 
elsewhere,  attempted  to  cure  these  evils,  by  founding 
charities  for  abandoned  and  destitute  children.  It  was  all 
however  in  vain.  Exposure  and  child  murder  and  the 
sale  of  children  increased.  Nor  did  the  Stoical  philosophy 
seem  to  exert  much  more  influence  on  legislation  than  on 
practical  morals.  There  was  indeed  under  Severus  a  law 
passed  which  secured  the  liberty  of  a  child  sold  by  its 
father  from  reasons  of  poverty  ;  another  act  punished  with 
banishment  the  creditor  who  would  receive  children  as 
security  for  debt,  before  ascertaining  whether  they  were 
free  or  not.  The  Emperor  Diocletian  renewed  the  edicts 
of  Severus,  and  took  away  from  the  father  all  right  of 
giving,  selling,  or  pledging  his  children. 

When  the  peculiar  power  of  Christianity  began  to  work 
in  the  Roman  empire,  it  tended,  of  course,  in  every  way  to 
eradicate  these  horrible  evils.  Nothing  could  be  further 
from  its  spirit  than  such  enormities.  Human  life  every- 
where was  profoundly  sacred  to  it,  and  the  Church  began 
immediately  to  protect  and  shelter  unfortunate  children. 
The  Christian  Fathers,  whose  influence  in  some  directions 
is  by  no  means  admirable,  in  this  were  consistent  with  the 
teachings  of  their  great  Leader  and  the  Founder  of  theiir 
Faith.  They  struggled  incessantly  against  the  exposure 
of  children.  "  We  have  renounced,"  says  one,^  "  your 
bloody  spectacles,  believing  that  there  is  no  difl"erence 
between  regarding  a  murder  and  committing  it.  We  hold 
for  homicides  the  women  who  commit  abortion,  and  we 
think  that  to  expose  a  child  is  to  kill  him."  "  One  meets," 
says  another,^  "  among  all  nations  only  children  destined 
for  the  most  horrible  purposes,  and  who  arc  nourished  like 
troops  of  animals  ;  you  raise  a  tribute  on  these  children.' 
*  Athenag.  Apol.  ^  Justin.  Apol. 


THE  FATHERS  ON  EXPOSURE   OF  CHHDREN.    77 

**  The  wicked  alone  can  expose  his  children  ;  for  us,  this 
impiety  only  inspires  horror  :  first,  because  the  most  of 
these  unfortunate  little  ones  are  destined  for  debauch  ; 
then,  because  we  would  fear  the  accusation  of  murder  if 
they  should  die."  Clement  says,  "  Man  is  more  cruel  to 
his  offspring  than  animals."  TertuUian's  appeal  is  well 
known. 

Felix  speaks  of  children  exposed  to  wild  beasts  and 
birds,  and  of  these  crimes  as  exceeding  the  worst  of  ancient 
times,  Lactantius,  after  an  eloquent  passage,  says,  "  These 
parricides  allege  their  extreme  poverty  and  the  impossi- 
bility of  raising  their  families."  ..."  They  have 
educated  their  own  blood  for  slavery  or  the  brothel."  ^ 
Basil  (381  A.D.)  preaches  against  the  spectacle  of  free 
children  sold  by  creditors  in  the  market,  and  those  who 
expose  them  from  reasons  of  poverty.^ 

Justin  pours  forth  indignation  at  those  who  expose 
their  offspring,  and  thus  suffer  both  girls  and  boys  to  be 
brought  up  for  the  basest  purposes.^ 

It  is  unnecessary  to  give  more  instances  of  the  unceasing 
protests  of  humanity,  addressed  by  the  early  Fathers 
against  this  cruel  practice. 

The  great  obstacle  to  reform,  however,  was  the  profound 
and  terrible  pauperism  of  the  Roman  empire.  When, 
under  Constantine,  the  spirit  of  Christianity  began  to  affect 
Roman  legislation  on  this  subject,  there  came  up  always 
the  practical  difficulty — What  shall  be  done  with  the  ex- 
posed child  .''     He  will  only  be  preserved  from  death  by 

*  Addixit  certe  sanguinem  suum  vel  ad  servitutem  vel  ad  lupanar. 
(L.  C.  Lact.,  De  vero  cultu,  lib.  vi.) 
^  Qui   praetextu   ad   paupertate    qusesito    suos   infantes  exponunt. 

{Jl077iel^ 

^  Quia  videmus  ...  ad  stupra  non  puellas  solum,  sed  etiam 
masculos  produci  .  .  .  ,  pueros  ad  turpes  usus,  etc  {Apol.,  1, 
c.  27.) 


y8  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

those  who  would  make  a  slave  of  him.  To  forbid  such 
slavery  may  only  increase  the  evils  of  exposure.  These 
difficulties  constantly  modified  legislation  on  this  evil. 
Constantine,  in  the  year  315,  was  obliged  to  put  forth  the 
following  proclamation  :  "  Let  a  law  be  at  once  promul- 
gated in  all  the  towns  of  Italy,  to  turn  parents  from  using 
a  parricidal  hand  on  their  new-born  children,  and  to  dispose 
their  hearts  to  the  best  sentiments.  Watch  with  care  over 
this,  that,  if  a  father  bring  his  child,  saying,  that  he  cannot 
support  it,  one  should  supply  him  without  delay  with  food 
and  clothing;  for  the  cares  of  the  new  born  suffer  no  delay, 
and  we  order  that  our  revenue,  as  well  as  our  treasure,  aid 
in  this  expense."  And  again  in  321  :  "We  have  learned 
that  the  inhabitants  of  provinces,  suffering  from  scarcity  of 
food,  sell  and  put  in  pledge  their  children.  We  command 
then  that  those  found  in  this  situation,  without  any  per- 
sonal resource,  and  only  being  able  with  great  trouble  to 
support  their  children,  be  succoured  by  our  treasury  before 
they  fall  under  the  blows  of  poverty  ;  for  it  is  repugnant 
to  our  morals  that  any  one  under  our  empire  should  be 
pushed  by  hunger  to  commit  a  crime."  ^ 

Constantine  was  subsequently  (331)  obliged,  in  view  of 
the  increasing  calamities  of  the  empire,  to  enact  a  law  that 
any  one  "  taking  up  "  an  exposed  infant  had  the  power 
to  adopt  him  as  a  child,  or  to  keep  him  as  a  slave,  and 
the  natural  father  had  no  right  to  reclaim  him.  He  was 
however  permitted  to  obtain  his  child  again,  if  he  paid  the 
full  price,  or  replaced  him  by  another  slave. 

Valentinian  (366)  proclaimed  to  the  empire  the  duty  of 
parents  supporting  their  children,  and  threatened  punish- 
ment for  the  crime  of  exposure  ;  but  the  unnatural  parent 
was  not  permitted  "to  claim  as  his,  whom  he  had  led  to 
death."  The  sale  of  the  children  of  the  poor  was  not 
'  Cod.  Theod.,  xi.  tit.  27. 


THE  COUNCILS.  79 

absolutely  forbidden  (from  motives  of  humanity),  but  if 
reclaimed,  parents  were  to  pay  the  full  price  and  one-fifth 
in  addition. 

The  Christian  councils,  which  set  themselves  firmly 
against  the  crime,  as  well  as  the  Christian  emperors  and 
law-givers,  were  obliged  through  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth 
centuries  to  leave  children  to  become  slaves  to  save  them, 
as  the  phrase  was,  "  from  the  teeth  of  dogs."  The  councils 
repeatedly  exhorted  the  faithful  to  collect  abandoned 
children,  and  to  hold  them  either  in  adoption  or  servitude. 

As  early  as  325,  the  Council  of  Nice  ordered  the  founda- 
tion of  hospitals  in  the  principal  towns,  some  of  which 
would  no  doubt  shelter  the  foundlings.  The  Council  of 
Vaison  (442)  established  rules  as  to  the  receiving  and 
taking  care  of  abandoned  little  ones.  Whoever  shall  find 
one,  shall  bring  him  to  the  church,  where  the  fact  shall 
be  formally  certified.  The  following  Lord's  Day,  the 
clergyman  shall  announce  to  the  faithful,  that  a  new  born 
has  been  found,  and  ten  days'  time  will  be  granted  to  the 
parents  to  recognize  and  reclaim  him.  When  these  for- 
malities had  been  fulfilled,  if  any  one  reclaimed  a  child 
or  calumniated  him  who  received  it,  he  was  punished 
with  severe  ecclesiastical  penalties.^  No  council,  however, 
ventured  to  proclaim  the  emancipation  of  the  abandoned 
little  ones. 

The  full  effect  of  the  new  Faith  upon  legislation  on  this 
matter  was  not  seen  however  before  the  reign  of  Justinian. 
This  emperor  (529-534)  took  the  humane  ground  that 
the  abandoned  infant,  even  if  a  slave,  became  free  by  the 
act  ;  and  that  if  it  were  found,  it  became  the  property 
neither  of  the  finder  nor  of  the  parent  who  had  exposed 
it ;  the  law  recognized  in  such  children  the  power  of  ac- 

*  Acta  Cone.  Concil.  Vas.  (ix.  1),  De  ExpositiSy  etc. 


8o  GESTA   CHRTSTL 

quiring  property  for  themselves  and  of  disposing  of  it  in 
favour  of  their  own  descendants.! 

In  533,  the  emperor,  finding  how  little  legislation  was 
lessening  this  fearful  evil,  proclaimed  as  the  height  of 
cruelty  the  depriving  such  unfortunate  children  of  their 
liberty,  and  threatened  the  authors  of  the  crime  with  the 
severest  penalties.  He  announced  again  that  all  infants 
exposed  near  churches  or  in  other  places,  became  free  by 
this  act,^  and  declared  anew  that  no  right  of  reclaiming 
existed  over  these  unfortunate  beings.  The  famous  Code 
made  the  act  of  exposure  as  much  more  cruel  than 
murder,  as  it  strikes  beings  more  feeble  and  worlhy  of 
pity.  The  Novelise^  speak  of  the  crime  as  one  alien  to 
human  feeling  and  which  even  barbarians  could  not 
commit. 

In  553,  Justinian  invited  the  Archbishop  and  Prefect  of 
Thessalonica  to  give  to  exposed  infants  all  the  assistance 
possible,  while  threatening  a  severe  fine  on  all  who  diso- 
beyed.* The  law,  however,  still  allowed  the  father,  in 
extreme  distress,  to  sell  his  child  at  the  moment  of  birth, 
and  permitted  the  purchaser  to  retain  it  in  service. 

Houses  of  mercy  for  children  were  founded  also  by 
Justinian.  The  churches  and  Church  charities  became 
refuges  for  this  unfortunate  class.  Christian  charity  at- 
tempted to  alleviate  the  great  evil  which  law  could  not 
correct  or  the  usual  spirit  of  humanity  prevent.  A  marble 
vessel   was  provided  for  exposed  infants  at  the  door  of 

1  Sancimus  nemini  licere,  sive  ab  ingenuis  genitoribus  puer  parvu- 
lus  procreatus,  sive  a  libertini  progenie,  sive  servili  conditione  macu- 
latus,  expositus  sit,  enim  puerum  in  suum  dominum  indicare. 

^  Sancimus  ut  quosque  vel  in  ecclesiis  vel  in  vicis  vel  aliis  locis 
abjectos  constiterit,  modis  omnibus  liberi  sint.    {Cod.  Just.,  lib.  xii.) 

3  Crimen  a  sensu  humano  alicnum,  et  quod  ne  ab  uUis  quidem 
barbaris  admitti  credibile  est.     (Aw.,  iii.) 

*  Nov.^  ix.  38. 


FOUNDLINGS.  8i 

each  church.  In  a  later  age,  this  simple  provision  of 
humanity  was  imitated  in  a  manner  which  produced  great 
evils,  in  the  well-known  "turning-slide"  [tour)  of  French 
asylums  for  foundlings.  In  that  time  of  cruelty  and  hard- 
ness, however,  the  church  receptacle  was  for  these  infants 
the  alternative  to  "servitas  aut  lupanar,"  the  slave's  chain 
or  the  brothel. 

The  servants  of  the  Church  (matricularii)  or  the  clergy- 
man received  the  infant,  and  drew  up  a  legal  form,  certi- 
fying to  abandonment.  The  latter  then  enquired,  in  the 
religious  meeting  of  the  faithful,  if  any  would  take  charge 
of  the  infant.  All  these  formalities  must  receive  the 
sanction  of  the  archbishop.  Often  a  family  was  found 
who  would  consent  to  adopt  the  orphan,  or,  if  not,  the 
Church  took  charge  of  him.  In  some  of  the  towns,  the 
new  born  thus  abandoned  was  exposed  at  the  doors  of 
the  church  by  order  of  the  archbishop,  during  ten  days.^ 
If  any  one  recognized  the  babe,  or  could  designate  the 
parents,  he  was  bound  to  inform  the  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties. The  nurses  (nutricarii)  who  had  charge  of  the  infant 
received  a  formal  and  legal  paper,  in  which  their  own 
compensation  was  fixed,  and  the  circumstances  of  the 
exposure  were  stated,  and  their  right  recognized  of  holding, 
if  necessary,  the  child  as  a  slave. 

The  churches  generally  held  among  their  serfs  the  new 
born  thus  found  and  supported.  Many  churches  had 
orphan  or  foundling  refuges  connected  with  them. 

In  the  eighth  century,  the  evil  in  Europe  was  at  an 
extreme  point  ;  the  poor  sold  their  offspring,  and  great 
numbers  of  children  perished.  In  the  Gauls,  as  well  as 
Germany,  Italy,  and  England,  needy  peasants  openly 
offered    their  children   for  sale.     Many  of  the    saints    are 

'  Hist.  d(s  Enfanls  tronvh,  par  J.  F.  Terme  et  J.  B.  Monfalgon, 
Paris,  1840. 

a 


82  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

related  to  have  been  thus  sold.  In  the  British  Islands, 
the  traffic  became  an  object  of  a  special  mission  by  Pope 
Gregory,  who  sought  to  abolish  it.  "  Our  Divine  Re- 
deemer," says  this  pontiff",  "in  making  Himself  man,  has 
delivered  us  all  from  servitude,  and  has  restored  us  to  our 
primeval  liberty.  Let  us  imitate  His  example,  in  freeing 
from  slavery  the  men  who  are  free  by  the  laws  of  nature."  ^ 

As  we  have  related  elsewhere,  Christian  charity  early 
began  efforts  to  relieve  these  great  evils,  by  the  foundation 
of  refuges  and  orphan-asylums.  There  is  an  indication  of 
one  as  early  as  the  fifth  century  in  Treves  ;  ^  and  another 
was  founded  in  'jZ'j,  by  Archbishop  Datheus,  at  Milan, 
whose  words  are  thus  reported  :  "  I  desire  that  as  soon  as 
an  infant  shall  be  exposed  in  church,  he  be  received  by  the 
superintendent  of  the  hospital,  and  entrusted  to  the  care 
of  nurses  employed  for  this  purpose.  These  children  are  to 
learn  a  trade,  and  when  they  have  arrived  at  the  age  of 
eight  years,  I  desire  that  they  be  freed  from  all  servitude, 
and  be  at  liberty  to  go  and  dwell  where  they  please."  ^ 

Several  asylums  are  mentioned  in  the  eighth  century  in 
different  portions  of  Europe  ;  some  created  by  individuals, 
and  others  founded  by  royal  authority.  Still  others  are 
spoken  of  in  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  century.  From  these 
has  sprung  the  long  list  of  Christian  charities  for  children  in 
all  civilized  countries  ;  asylums,  refuges,  creches,  infant  and 
industrial  schools,  reformatory  institutions  and  aid  societies 
without  number,  caring  for  the  orphan,  the  blind,  the  deaf 
and  dumb,  the  crippled  and  defective,  the  foundling  and 

*  Greg,  op.,  Ep.  xii.  1.  vi.  l6. 

2  Terine  et  Monfalqon. 

'  Quoted  in  Hist,  des  Enfans  TrouvSs,  Terme  et  Monfalgon. 
also  Miiratori. 

Volo  atque  statuo,  ut  cum  tales  fcminte,  quae  instiyante  adver- 
sario  ex  adultero  acceperint  et  parturierint,  etc.  Muratori,  Ant.  Ital.^ 
3,558. 


CHARITIES  FOR    CHILDREN.  83 

outcast.  Christ  especially  showed  his  feeling  for  the  child  \ 
and  Christianity,  following  His  teachings,  has  always  set 
the  utmost  value  on  the  person  and  well-being  of  children, 
which,  indeed,  is  but  the  natural  fruit  of  the  whole 
tendency  of  this  religion.  Probably,  of  all  practical 
changes  which  Christianity  has  encouraged  or  commenced 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  this  respect  and  value  for 
children  is  the  most  important,  as  it  affects  the  foundation 
of  all  society  and  government,  and  influences  a  far  distant 
future. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HUMANITY  IN   ROMAN   LAW. 

We  refer  continually  to  Constantine's  legislation,  not 
because  this  emperor  could  be  considered  a  Christian 
convert,  but  because  now,  for  the  first  time,  Christianity 
was  openly  influencing  Roman  jurists.  A  brief  review 
of  some  of  the  humane  legislation  of  Constantine  wili 
show  the  working  of  the  new  system  of  morals.  A  law 
(312  A.D.)  exempted  Christian  ministers  from  municipal 
charges,  even  as  the  pagan  priests  had  been,  thus  putting 
the  officials  of  the  new  religion  on  an  equality  with  those 
of  the  old.  An  edict  at  Milan  (313)  granted  liberty  of 
conscience  to  Christians  and  worshippers  under  all  other 
religions.  In  the  same  year  emancipation  was  permitted 
in  a  Christian  church.  In  321  legacies  were  allowed  to 
religious  houses ;  succour  was  sent  to  the  African  clergy, 
and  the  general  observance  of  Sunday  was  prescribed.  The 
panegyrics  on  Constantine  spoke  of  his  laws,  as  especially 
established  for  the  control  of  morals  and  breaking  the 
power  of  vices.^  His  biographer  expressly  says  that  he 
desired  to  conform  his  legislation  to  the  spirit  of  Christi- 
anity, and  in  this  view  he  endeavoured  to  break  down  the 
old  legislation  which  had  oppressed  the  weak.  It  was 
with  this  purpose  that  he  conferred  upon  the  archbishops 

'  Novte    leges    regcndis   moribus  et  frangcndis   vitiis   constitutae; 
(Paneg.  Con.,  c.  38.) 


HUMANE  LEGISLATION.  85 

the  legal  right  to  protect  the  weak  and  become  arbiters  in 
civil  cases,  which,  in  an  age  of  such  cruelty  and  oppression, 
was  often  a  great  means  of  protection  to  the  poorer  classes. 
In  fact  this  practice  was  the  beginning  of  the  system  of 
arbitration  (y^?/i-/r^>^),  which  in  the  Middle  Ages  became 
so  important  an  influence  in  rescuing  society  in  Germany 
from  "  private  war  "  and  anarchy.  The  custom  itself  dates 
from  the  habit  of  the  early  Christians,  taught  by  the 
Apostles,  of  deciding  their  disputes  by  arbiters  chosen 
among  themselves. 

An  act  (325)  asserts  the  rigb'  of  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  empire  to  have  recourse  to  ^the  courts  of  justice,  and 
the  duty  of  all  judges  and  magistrates  to  exercise  strict 
impartiality.  All  were  held  equal  before  the  law.  Another 
(331)  protests  against  the  venality  so  common  throughout 
the  administration.  "  Let  the  rapacious  hands  of  officials 
cease  from  their  plunder — cease,  I  say!"^  In  334,  it  was 
proclaimed  that  widows  and  orphans,  the  weak  and  the 
poor,  cannot  be  forced  before  a  tribunal  of  their  own 
province  (where  influence  and  wealth  might  oppress  them), 
but  can  appeal  to  the  emperor.  In  365,  Valentinian  I. 
freed  widows  from  the  tax  laid  on  the  common  people, 
and  exempted  orphans  up  to  the  age  of  20,  and  female 
orphans  till  they  were  married. 

The  first  laws  upon  the  observance  of  Sunday  are 
especially  in  the  interest  of  the  working-classes,  and  clearly 
manifest  the  influence  of  the  new  ideas  in  the  Roman 
world.  Thus  one  (321)  forbade  other  labours  than  those 
of  the  fields  on  Sunday,  and  all  civil  public  acts,  except 
emancipation.  Soldiers,  too,  were  allowed  the  privilege  of 
assisting  at  divine  worship  on  that  day. 

'  Cessent  jam  nunc  rapaces  officialium  inanus,  cessent  inquam  ! 
Cod.  Theod.,  1  i.  tit.  72,  4.  Cod.  yiist.,  lib.  iii.  tit.  12,  2,  3.  Cod 
r/ieod.,  lib.  ii.  tit.  8.  2,  i.     Cod.  Just.,  lib.  ii.  tit.  58,  2,  i. 


86  GESTA    CHRISTL 

If  we  reflect  on  the  condition  of  Roman  slaves  and 
all  labourers  at  that  period,  how  incessant  and  wasting 
the  toil,  and  what  sacrifice  of  human  life  was  the  result, 
we  shall  appreciate  the  humanity  of  the  first  "  Sunday- 
La  ws." 

A  law  of  Emperor  Leo  says:  "On  the  Lord's  Day> 
eternally  worthy  of  honour  and  of  veneration,  let  no  act  of 
legal  procedure  be  done  ;  let  no  debtor  receive  a  summons, 
let  no  pleadings  be  heard,  let  there  be  no  process,  let  the 
hard  voice  of  the  public  crier  be  silent,  let  the  pleaders  see 
their  discussions  interrupted,  and  enjoy  a  moment  of  truce  ; 
let  adversaries  agree  and  repentance  enter  into  their  soul. 
We  make,  then,  this  day  a  day  of  repose,  but  we  do  not 
wish  that  obscene  pleasures  should  fill  it.  On  Sunday, 
let  all  theatrical  representations,  and  races  in  the  amphi- 
theatre, and  lamentable  combats  of  wild  beasts,  be  sus- 
pended ;  and  if  the  solemnity  of  our  birth  or  coronation 
fall  on  that  day,  let  the  celebration  be  deferred."  ^ 

The  new  spirit  touched  even  the  forms  of  law.  In 
A.D.  342,  the  enactments  said  boldly,  "  Let  the  formulae  of 
ancient  law,  those  captious  syllables  which  are  nets  for 
good  faith,  disappear  completely  from  all  acts." 

No  classic  legislator,  so  far  as  we  can  recall,  had  ever 
cared  for  that  often  unfortunate  class — the  prisoners. 
Many  were  merely  confined  as  witnesses,  many  on  false 
accusations,  and  all  demanded,  at  least,  common  humanity 
in  their  public  treatment 

The  prison  reform  of  succeeding  centuries  began  under 
Constantine's  reign.  Those  accused  of  crimes  are  to  be 
examined  with  all  diligence,  and  those  arrested  must  be 
confined  in  a  humane  manner.  The  cells  must  have  ait 
and  light.  Persons  under  accusations  are  not  to  be  put  in 
jails,  or  scourged,  but  are  to  be  placed  under  "  military 
*  Code,\\\.  411,  II. 


PRISON  REFORM.  87 

arrest,"  and  in  a  prison  open  to  the  liglit.'^  A  law  in  314 
forbade  the  judges  to  inflict  capital  punishment  without 
the  confession  of  the  accused,  or  sworn  testimony  of  the 
accusers.  The  new  moral  power  in  the  world  seemed  tr 
give  a  fresh  dignity  to  the  human  countenance,  as  having 
been  borne  by  Him  who  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  who  had 
died  for  men.  "  Let  those  who  are  condemned,"  says  a 
writing  of  Constantine  (318),  "whether  to  gladiatorial 
games  or  to  the  mines,  not  be  branded  on  the  forehead, 
that  the  majesty  of  the  face  formed  in  the  image  of  celes- 
tial beauty  be  not  dishonoured."  ^  In  340,  a  law  forbade 
the  mingling  of  sexes  in  prison  ;  and  another  was  enacted 
protecting  the  modesty  of  Christian  virgins  against  traf- 
fickers in  prostitution.*  Honorius  ^  charged  the  judges  to 
visit  the  prisons  every  Sunday  to  see  that  the  prisoners 
received  sufficient  nourishment,  and  to  guard  lest  the 
proper  humanity  be  not  shown  the  convicts  by  corrupt 
jailors.  The  sentiment  of  humanity  reached  even  the 
rights  over  material  things,  and  in  Justinian's  Code  the 
following  beautiful  passage  occurs  in  regard  to  selling  the 
home  of  a  minor  : — 

"  It  shall  not  be  lawful  to  sell  the  home  in  which  the 
father  has  died  and  the  youth  grown  up  ;  in  which  either 
to  see  the  statues  of  ancestors  not  placed  or  overthrown  is 
melancholy  indeed."  ^ 

Such  a  provision  as  the  following,  though  made  for  a 

*  Cod.  Theod.,  lib.  ix.  tit.  5. 
'  Ibid.,  lib.  ix.  tit.  40,  21,  2. 
3  Ibid.,  lib.  XV.  tit.  8,  21. 

*  Ibid.,  lib.  XV.  tit.  8,  i. 

*  Ne  his  hLiinanitas  clausis  per  corruptos  carcerum  custodes  nege- 
tur.     {Ibid.,  lib.  x.  tit.  3,  27.) 

'  Nee  vero  domum  vendere  liceat,  in  qua  defecit  pater,  minor 
crevit  ;  in  qua,  majorum  imagines,  aut  non  videre  fixas  aut  revulsas, 
videre,  satis  est  lugubre.     {Cod.,  ix.  tit.  37.) 


88  GESTA   CHRISTL 

personal  object  by  the  emperor,  breathed  the  new  spirit  in 
the  Roman  world.  By  the  severe  old  Papinian  law,  if  a 
free  man  should  marry  a  woman  who  had  been  a  slave 
though  now  a  freed  woman,  and  should  afterwards  chance 
to  be  elevated  to  the  senatorial  dignity,  the  marriage  was 
thereby  dissolved.  The  law  of  the  codifiers,  full  of  the 
new  humanity,  says  :  "  We  then,  following  the  judgment 
of  God,  do  not  suffer  the  good  fortune  of  the  husband  to 
become  the  calamity  of  the  wife.  Far  from  our  times  be 
any  severity  of  this  kind ! "  and  it  is  enacted  that  such  a 
marriage  is  good.^ 

The  deep  enthusiasm  of  humanity  working  throughout 
the  Roman  world  under  the  new  impulse,  finds  its  fitting 
expression  in  these  mild  provisions  of  the  Roman  law. 
The  personality  of  the  Jewish  teacher  is  felt  by  students 
labouring  in  their  closets  in  codifying  or  improving  legis- 
lation for  the  empire,  and  the  dry  details  of  law  bear  the 
stamp  upon  them  of  Him  who  held  all  men  as  children  of 
a  common  Father,  and  believed  in  overcoming  evil  with 
good. 

These  are  interesting  as  the  first  traces  of  the  Gesta 
Christi  in  European  legislation  ;  they  herald  a  long  history 
of  humane  victories. 

Opposition  to  War  by  Christians  in  the  Roman  Period. 
— It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  spirit  of  Christ's 
teachings  is  opposed  to  war,  and,  above  all,  to  wars  of 
vengeance  or  conquest.  But  this  is  one  of  those  points 
in  which  He  was  so  much  in  advance  not  only  of  His  own 
times,  but  of  all  succeeding  ages,  that  His  followers  have 
only  been  able  to  make  a  kind  of  compromise  between  His 
principles  and  the  ideas  of  the  time.  They  have  often 
excused  only  defensive  wars,  or  service  given  on  compul- 

'  Nos  igitur  Dei  sequentes  judicium,  etc.  Absit  a  nostro  tempore, 
hujusmodi  asperitas  !     (Cod.y  lib.  v.  tit.  4.) 


OPPOSITION  TO    WAR.  89 

sion,  or  they  have  sought  to  mitigate  the  horrors  of  war, 
or  to  prevent  it  by  arbitration.  The  habits  of  arbitration 
in  private  matters  were  very  early  implanted  among  be- 
lievers by  the  words  of  Jesus  (Matt,  xviii.  15-17)  and  the 
apostles  (l  Cor.  vi.  4-7).  But  the  early  followers,  being 
under  the  more  immediate  inspiration  of  the  Master,  went 
much  farther,  and  great  numbers  seem  to  have  refused 
entirely  to  serve  as  soldiers,  or  to  join  in  any  war  what- 
ever. The  phrase  is  often  repeated  by  the  earlier  Fathers, 
that  "Jesus  in  disarming  Peter  disarmed  all  soldiers." 

An  anecdote  is  related  of  a  certain  Christian,  Maxi- 
milian by  name,  who  was  brought  before  a  Roman  tribunal 
to  be  enrolled  as  a  soldier  in  one  of  the  legions  of  Rome. 
On  the  proconsul  asking  his  name,  he  replied  :  "  I  am  a 
Christian — I  cannot  fight !  "  He  was  enrolled,  but  still 
refused  to  fight.  He  was  told  that  he  must  either  serve 
or  die.  He  again  replied,  "  I  am  a  Christian  !  I  can- 
not fight,  even  if  I  die ! "  whereupon  he  was  executed.^ 
Another  instance  is  given  of  a  centurion  named  Marcellus, 
in  the  legion  of  "  Trajan."  He  became  a  Christian,  and 
believing  war  not  permitted  by  his  faith,  he  threw  down  his 
belt  before  his  legion,  and  declared  that,  consistently  with 
his  principles,  he  could  not  fight.  He  was  sent  to  prison, 
but  still  persisting  in  his  refusal,  and  his  declaration  that  it 
was  not  lawful  for  a  Christian  to  engage  in  war,  he  was 
put  to  death.  Another  officer  ^  in  the  same  legion  resigned 
for  a  similar  reason,  and  was  also  executed.  A  number  of 
such  instances  are  recorded,  and  probably  many  more  have 
never  come  down  to  us. 

Many  of  the  early  Fathers  took  the  ground  that  no 
Christian  could  lawfully  be  a  soldier  or  engage  in  a  war. 

*  Acts  of  Ridnart,  quoted  by  Dymond,  Essays  on  Principles  oj 
Morality,  p.  418. 

*  Dymondy  p.  418. 


90  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

Justin  Martyr  and  Tatian  speak  of  soldiers  and  Christians  as 
distinct  characters,  and  Tatian  says  that  Christians  decHne 
mihtary  commands.  Clemens  calls  Christians  "  followers 
of  peace,"  and  says  they  use  no  implements  of  war.  Lac- 
tantius  states  repeatedly  that  it  can  never  be  lawful  for  a 
righteous  man  to  go  to  war.^  Tertullian  argues  against 
it  in  "  De  Corona "  (c.  xi.),  and  states  that  in  a  large 
portion  of  the  Roman  armies,  embracing  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  best  legions,  not  a  Christian  is  to  be  found. 
In  another  passage,  spealcing  of  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  as 
to  universal  peace,  he  adds  : "  "  You  must  confess  that  the 
prophecy  of  Isaiah  is  accomplished,  as  far  as  the  practice  of 
every  individual  is  concerned  to  whom  it  is  applicable." 
He  calls  Christians  "  priests  of  peace."  Irenaeus  says, 
"  Christians  have  turned  swords  and  spears  into  pruning- 
hooks,  and  know  not  how  to  fight."  Justin  Martyr 
declares  that  "  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  is  fulfilled,  you  have 
reason  to  know  ;  for  we,  who  in  times  past  killed  one 
another,  do  not  now  fight  with  our  enemies.^ 

One  of  the  accusations  against  Christians  was  that  they 
refused  to  serve  in  the  Roman  armies.  Origen,  in  answer- 
ing this  reproach  from  Celsus,  says  (Apol.,  i.  6)  :  "  To 
those  unbelievers  who  would  force  us  to  fight  for  the 
commonwealth,  to  destroy  human  beings,  we  would 
answer  :  That  even  their  own  idol-priests,  and  those  who 
attend  upon  the  service  of  their  reputed  gods,  do  keep 
themselves  unstained  with  human  blood,  that  so  they 
may  offer  sacrifices  for  the  whole  nation  with  clean  and 
unpolluted  hands.     Neither,  in  case  war  should  arise,  are 

*  Ita  neque  militare  justo  licebit.     {Div.  Inst.,  lib.  xi.) 
'  Dyinond,  p.  418. 

•  Quoted  by  Dymond  ;  but  see  Justin,  Dialog,  cum.  Tryph.  Apol.,  2. 
Tertull.,  ApoL,  c.  21  and  2>7-  Origen  con.  Cclsiim,  3,  5,  8.  Cypr. 
Epist.,  56.     Athan.     Cyrill.  etc. 


EARLY  CHRISTIANS  NOT  SOLDIERS.  91 

these  men  to  be  enlisted  in  their  armies.  And  if  this  be 
done  without  reason,  how  much  more  may  they  be  said 
after  their  manner  to  fight,  who,  being  priests  to  the  most 
high  God,  endeavour  to  preserve  themselves  free  from  blood 
and  rapine  ;  that  so,  while  others  are  polluted  with  spoil 
and  slaughter,  they  may  wrestle  with  God  Himself,  by 
constant  and  incessant  prayer,  for  the  welfare  of  them  that 
make  war  justly,  and  for  the  safety  of  them  that  govern 
righteously." 

Le  Blant,  in  his  investigation  of  Christian  inscriptions, 
mentions  that  among  10,050  Pagan  inscriptions  which  he 
had  examined,  545  were  those  over  the  bodies  of  soldiers, 
while  in  4,734  Christian  inscriptions  only  twenty-seven  were 
memorials  of  military  men.^ 

Dymond  states,  that  for  two  hundred  years  not  a  Chris- 
tian soldier  is  on  record  in  the  Roman  armies  ;  and  that 
only  in  the  third  century,  when  Christianity  was  more 
corrupted,  they  began  to  be  enrolled. 

This  may  be  an  exaggeration  ;  for  we  know  that  some 
of  the  most  influential  of  the  Fathers,  as  Augustine^  for 
instance,  defended  military  service  and  did  not  object  to  a 
Christian's  enlisting  in  a  "  righteous  war."  Then,  much  of 
the  objection  on  the  part  of  the  believers  was  more  to  the 
idolatrous  practices  connected  with  the  Roman  military  ser- 
vice than  to  the  shedding  of  blood  itself.  Still  it  all  shows 
that  the  first  unconscious  drift  of  the  early  Christian  teach- 
ings was  against  war,  or  any  participation  in  it.  This  did 
not  indeed  become  a  reality  in  Christian  life  in  later  ages,  for 

^  Inscr.  Chrdt.  de  la  Gaule,  p.  81. 

^  Yet  Augustine  was  a  lover  of  peace,  as  were  all  the  Fathers. 
"  What  shall  I  say  of  peace  or  of  praise  of  peace  till  we  arrive  at  that 
country  of  peace  ?  There  we  shall  be  able  to  praise  it,  where  we  more 
fully  possess  it.  Jerusalem  is  the  vision  of  peace,  and  all  who  possess 
and  love  peace,  are  blessed  therefor  evermore.'"  {Trad,  in  Ps.  ex. 
57.) 


92  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

Christians  have  supported  war  in  every  century,  yet  it 
prepared  the  way  for  the  efforts  for  peace  and  arbitration 
in  the  Middle  Ages  whicli  we  shall  detail  later, — for  the 
modern  efforts  to  mitigate  the  evils  of  war  and  to  prevent 
it  by  arbitration, —  and  for  the  higher  efforts  of  the  followers 
of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  sure  to  come,  to  put  an  end  to  war 
on  the  earth,  and  bring  on  universal  peace. 


CHAPTER  IX 

DISTRIBUTION   OF   PROPERTY. 

There  v/i\\  be  diverse  difficulties  in  examining  the  direc- 
tion and  effect  of  Christ's  teachings  on  the  distribution  of 
property.  We  are  not  to  define  Oriental  and  half-poetic 
expressions  as  we  would  similar  phrases  in  a  Western  and 
more  prosaic  narrative  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  we  should 
not  interpret  Christ's  words  solely  by  the  practice  of  his 
later  followers  and  by  the  ideas  of  a  modern  and  industrial 
age.  It  is  not  to  be  assumed,  as  is  done  by  most  writers 
on  this  subject,  that  the  modern  form  of  the  distribution 
of  wealth  is  the  final  and  perfect  one,  and  that  society  as 
it  is  now  is  substantially  what  it  must  be  in  all  coming 
ages,  or  what  our  Lord  contemplated  in  his  future  "  King- 
dom of  Heaven,"  or  regenerated  society  of  all  men.  A 
Christian  writer  in  the  early  Middle  Age  would  have  had 
equal  right  to  assume  that  society  must  always  be  made 
up  of  landlords  owning  vast  tracts  of  country,  who  pro- 
tected their  vassals,  of  large  bodies  of  military  followers, 
and  of  serfs  bound  to  the  soil,  or  that  justice  in  regard  to 
quarrels  over  property  and  land  must  always  be  decided 
thejudicial  duel.  Both  conditions  were  not  directly  touched 
upon  by  the  teachings  of  the  great  Reformer,  yet  the  prin- 
ciples He  taught  must  gradually  undermine  both.  The 
feudal  system  belonged  to  a  stage  of  human  progress. 
The  modern  industrial  and  commercial  system  may  be 
equally  one  phase  in  the  gradual  change   or  advance  of 

S3 


94  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

mankind.  At  all  events,  it  is  not  the  ideal  or  perfect 
system.  A  condition  of  society  in  which  enormous  masses 
of  human  beings  are  born  to  an  almost  inevitable  lot  of 
squalor,  penury  and  ignorance,  and  still  other  multitudes 
to  incessant  labour  with  few  alleviations  or  enjoyments, 
while  another  considerable  class,  with  little  or  no  effort  of 
their  own,  have  all  the  blessings  of  life  and  transmit  them 
to  others, — or  an  industrial  system  which  leaves  to  the  few 
who  are  gifted  with  the  brains  or  enjoy  the  fortune  to  lead 
industrial  enterprizes  the  power  to  reap  the  benefits  of 
labour,  while  the  many  who  toil,  only  gain  a  bare  pittance, 
— a  society  which  presents  on  one  side,  enormous  fortunes 
and  endless  accumulations  of  wealth,  while  on  the  other, 
it  offers  classes  ground  down  by  poverty  and  pinched  with 
want,  is  certainly  not  the  Christian  ideal  of  society  or  any 
approach  to  the  "  Kingdom  of  God  "  on  earth. 

The  great  moral  progress  of  the  future  of  the  race  will 
plainly  be  toward  some  form  of  a  more  equable  distribution 
of  the  proceeds  of  labour.  What  form  this  will  take  is  as 
impossible  to  predict,  as  would  have  been  for  a  citizen  of 
the  Roman  empire  at  the  time  of  Tacitus  to  predict  the 
present  condition  of  Europe. 

If  we  read  Christ's  teachings  with  perfect  candour,  and  as 
far  removed  from  modern  habits  of  thought  as  possible, 
we  discover  a  continual  tendency  towards  exalting  poverty, 
humbling  wealth,  and  equalizing  the  conditions  of  life. 
Leaving  out  of  view  the  fact  that  Christ  and  His  disciples 
lived  in  almost  an  atmosphere  of  agrarianism,  or  at  least 
of  inalienability  of  family  property  in  land,  under  the 
Jesvish  land-system,^  and  also  the  natural  freedom  from 
all   burdens  of  property  which  the  teacher  of  a  new  faith 

'  How  far  this  was  a  practical  feature  of  Jewish  economy  at  the 
time  of  Christ,  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  say.  The  id^al  was  in  the  law, 
(^nd  must  have  influenced  the  minds  of  the  reformers  of  Judaea. 


CHRISrS  COMMUNISM.  95 

might  well  inculcate  in  a  climate  such  as  that  of  Syria  ; 
still,  there  is  even  then  a  certain  tone  throughout  the 
gospels,  if  not  of  "communism,"  at  least  in  favour  of 
greater  distribution  of  wealth  than  would  suit  modern 
ideas.  Christ  and  the  apostles  warn  incessantly  against 
accumulation  of  wealth.  They  almost  denounce  the  rich  ; 
they  praise  and  commend  the  poor ;  their  sympathies  are 
strongly  with  the  working  classes  ;  they  urge  continually 
the  diffusion  of  property,  in  whatever  way  would  benefit 
the  world ;  they  warn  those  who  do  not  scatter  their  ac- 
quisitions among  the  needy ;  they  leave  the  impression 
everywhere,  that  a  greater  equalizing  of  human  goods,  a 
moderate  acquisition,  and  a  raising  up  from  poverty  is 
what  is  demanded.  The  parable  of  Lazarus  has  been 
too  often  interpreted  under  modern  conditions,  and  it  may 
well  be  that  some  explanatory  features  given  by  Christ 
are  omitted  by  the  historian  ;  but  its  literal  interpretation 
plainly  contains  a  plea  against  the  great  inequalities  of 
fortune  in  this  world. 

Nothing,  however,  in  Christ's  teachings  tends  towards  any 
forcible  interfering  with  rights  of  property,  or  encourages 
dependence  on  others.  As  we  have  so  often  said,  He 
seldom  concerns  Himself  with  human  institutions.  He 
would  not  interfere  with  property  any  more  than  He  would 
with  government.  And,  as  we  shall  show,  in  presenting 
His  influence  on  the  charity  of  the  world,  neither  He  nor 
His  apostles  ever  taught  idleness  or  dependence.  On  the 
contrary,  they  enforced  the  lesson  of  industry  by  word  and 
example  ;  and  the  very  foundation  of  the  new  character, 
stamped  by  Christ,  contained  those  features  of  dignity  and 
true  manhood  which  have  lain  at  the  basis  of  all  real 
independence  and  liberty  ever  since,  Neither  the  idleness 
of  socialism  or  monasticism  nor  the  weakness  of  pauper- 
ism finds  any  support  in  the  gospels. 


96  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

The  especial  methods  by  which  our  Lord  would  resist 
accumulation,  are  by  inculcating  the  absolute  duty  of 
giving  and  of  sharing  means  with  others  who  are  less  for- 
tunate, and  by  withdrawing  the  mind  from  the  excessive 
greed  for  money.  In  many  cases,  the  entire  giving  up 
of  property  for  the  good  of  others  is  made  the  test  of 
discipleship. 

The  early  "  communism  "  of  the  apostles  is  an  evidence 
how  deeply  these  instructions  penetrated  ;  but  nothing  in 
the  words  of  Christ  or  His  disciples  shows  that  they  set 
forth  this  as  a  model  for  the  future.  Their  great  prin- 
ciples were,  not  to  hunger  for  riches,  to  be  content  with 
moderate  means,  and  if  wealth  came,  to  hold  it  rigidly  as 
a  trust  for  the  good  of  humanity.  These  principles  would 
certainly  tend  towards  equalization  of  property. 

Charity. — One  great  means  of  equalizing  human  con- 
ditions was  evidently  to  be  through  benefaction  and  charity. 
Those  who  had  were  to  give  to  those  who  had  not.  This, 
however,  did  not  arise  under  Christ's  system  so  much  from 
a  desire  of  setting  right  the  distribution  of  wealth,  as  from 
the  great  underlying  principle  of  His  whole  teachings, 
that  the  individual  and  society  were  to  be  renewed  by 
love  to  God,  and  to  man  through  Him.  The  world  never 
needed  charity  and  compassion  as  it  did  in  the  centuries 
just  following  Christ.  The  irresponsible  and  despotic 
authority  of  Rome  had  stripped  some  of  the  richest 
provinces  of  the  ancient  world  of  ever}^  vestige  of  wealth 
for  the  sake  of  adding  to  the  incredible  extravagance  and 
display  of  the  imperial  court  and  city.  The  system  of 
taxation  in  distant  communities  was  like  that  in  the  states 
of  European  Turkey  in  this  century.  It  soon  left  nothing 
to  the  unfortunate  peasants,  and  mortgaged  their  harvests 
years  before.  Nor  did  the  taxes  always  reach  the  imperial 
exactor.     Knavish  tax-gatherers,  peculating  officials  and 


ROMAN  PAUPERISM.  97 

local  "  rings,"  plundered  the  money  which  was  wrung  from 
the  half-starved  farmers.  There  was  no  science,  order  or 
justice  in  Roman  systems  of  taxation.  Incessant  wars 
and  conquests  added  to  the  misery  of  the  labouring 
classes ;  and  slavery,  as  we  have  shown,  depressed  the  in- 
dustry and  wasted  the  means  of  the  whole  empire.  Vast 
masses  oi proletaires  were  gathered  in  the  cities,  especially 
in  the  imperial  capital  ;  and  poverty,  orphanage,  abandon- 
ment of  children,  with  wide-spread  pauperism  prevailed, 
as  they  have  scarcely  ever  been  known  in  the  history 
of  the  world. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  there  were  no  efforts 
of  compassion  to  alleviate  these  evils  before  the  first 
proclamation  of  Christian  charity.  The  sympathies  of 
humanity  have  been  felt  in  every  age  and  by  every  race, 
even  if  in  a  feeble  degree.  In  ancient  Rome,  men  always 
acknowledged  a  certain  duty  in  giving  alms  to  beggars 
and  in  relieving  extreme  distress,  though  infant  misery 
seems  to  have  excited  comparatively  little  compassion. 

Still,  an3'thing  like  the  modern  sentiment  or  conviction, 
born  of  Christianity,  of  the  obligation  resting  upon  each 
man  of  doing  all  in  his  power  to  wisely  relieve  human 
misery;  and  the  wide-spread,  thorough,  conscientious  bene- 
factions by  individuals,  so  common  in  modern  days,  were 
things  almost  unknown  in  the  ancient  world. 

Nor  were  the  efforts  of  the  imperial  government  for  the 
poor,  true  charities.  It  depended  to  a  certain  degree  on 
the  favour  of  the  crowd,  and  therefore  food  was  supplied 
indiscriminately  to  all  the  hungry  and  idle  who  poured 
into  the  capital.  In  Cicero's  time,  it  is  estimated  that 
about  12  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population,  and  in  the  year 
683  of  the  Republic,  33  per  cent,  were  supported  at  public 
expense.^ 

•  Naudet,  Mem.  sitrles  secoiirs  publics  cliez  les  Romains, 

H 


98  GESTA    CHRISTL 

It  is  related  that  Caesar  found  320,000  persons,  or  nearly 
three-quarters  of  the  whole  population  of  the  city,  on  the 
roll  of  public  succour  ;  five  modii  of  bread  (or  about  56 
lbs.)  were  distributed  to  each  person  per  month.  Under 
Augustus,  there  were  200,000  persons  in  Rome  receiving 
"out-door  relief"  from  the  authorities  ;  this  was  continued 
to  the  reign  of  Septimius  Severus,  who  added  a  ration  of 
oil  to  the  alms  thus  given.  Valentinian  the  Elder  ordered 
a  gratuituous  distribution  of  white  bread  to  each  citizen  ;  ^ 
80,000  modii  were  distributed  per  day  in  Constantinople, 
and  an  increase  of  125,000  modii  per  day  was  made  by 
Constans.  Constantine,  who  desired  to  have  as  many 
houses  built  in  the  new  capital  as  possible,  allotted  bread 
according  to  the  houses,  not  to  the  number  of  persons. 
Some  of  the  emperors  appropriated  large  amounts  of 
money  to  keeping  down  the  price  of  bread  in  the  capital, 
while  others  taxed  the  provinces  heavily  in  order  to  make 
provisions  cheap  in  the  metropolis.  The  effects  of  such 
a  vicious  system  of  charity  can  easily  be  inferred.  The 
idle  and  improvident  of  all  countries  were  attracted  to 
Rome  to  enjoy  this  "out-door  relief;"  the  industrious 
were  discouraged,  those  who  produced  the  wealth  bur- 
dened, and  the  working- classes  were  led  to  depend  on  the 
government  for  everything,  while  the  government  lived 
in  fear  of  them.  There  was  no  spirit  of  true  compassion 
in  it,  and  no  wise  economy.  The  masses  supported  a 
tyranny  and  received  bread  and  shows.  The  real  workers 
were  despoiled.  But  there  were  other  indirect  methods 
of  distributing  property  under  the  Republic  and  Empire. 
Such  articles  as  salt  were  furnished  gratuitously  to  the 
people  ;  patrons  supported  their  clients  ;  "  stay-laws  "  were 
passed  to  prevent  the  collection  of  debts  ;  agrarian  laws 
furnished,  like  the  American  public-land  laws,  free  home- 
^  C.  Theod.,  xiv.  17,  5  and  16,  2  ;   xi.  24,  2. 


ROMAN  CHARITIES.  99 

steads  to  the  landless,  on  conquered  or  public  territory. 
Caesar  bought  lands  to  be  distributed  among  the  poor. 
The  vicious  system  of  public  distribution  of  bread  or  grain 
among  the  people  was  not  abandoned  till  the  seventh 
century  after  Christ. 

There  even  existed  some  forms  of  public  assistance  in 
harmony  with  modern  ideas.  Aristotle  had  the  wisdom 
to  say  that  the  best  way  to  relieve  poverty  was  to  prevent 
it,  by  giving  means  to  buy  a  little  piece  of  land  or  by  a  loan 
to  found  a  trade.  Mutual  assistance  or  insurance  societies 
seem  to  have  existed  in  Greece,  and  are  spoken  of  by 
Pliny^  in  Trajan's  time,  as  formed  for  "  making  poverty 
more  endurable."  ^  Before  this  time,  the  emperors  had 
seen  with  anxiety  the  constant  diminution  of  popula- 
tion, especially  shown  in  the  lessening  number  of  children 
in  the  empire.  Augustus  attempted  to  encourage  the 
increase  of  children  by  well-known  laws,  and  it  is  related 
that  on  his  travels  through  Italy,  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
bestowing  an  allowance  (congiarium)  of  400  sesterces^  on 
any  one  whom  the  authorities  could  prove  to  have  sup- 
ported a  family  ;  subsequently,  children  over  eleven  years 
of  age  were  made  participators  in  these  bounties. 

The  Emperor  Nerva  left  benefactions  to  encourage  the 
increase  of  children.  Trajan,  in  100  A.D.,  supported  5>00C> 
destitute  or  orphan  children  at  public  expense,  and  in- 
creased the  number  every  year.  Money  was  invested  by 
him  for  this  purpose  in  land  and  farms  at  Veleia,  Cisalpine 
Gaul,  which  appears  to  have  paid  about '5  per  cent,  interest. 
In  this  particular  school  or  asylum,  there  were  263  boys 
and  33  girls;  in  some  villages  poor  children  were  supported 
in  their  homes  by  the  emperor,  while  municipalities  main- 
tained others. 

»  Pliny,  Ep.  x.  93,  94. 

'  Ad  sustinendum  tenuorum  inopiam.  *  About  ;^8  or  $41. 


loo  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

Pliny  endowed  a  charity  for  the  children  of  the  poor ; 
while  the  emperors  Adrian,  Antoninus,  and  M.  Aurelius 
founded  or  continued  benefactions  of  a  like  character.^ 

Charitable  bequests  are  occasionally  alluded  to  in  the 
burial  inscriptions.  Thus  a  citizen  of  Atona  bequeathed 
to  his  native  town  a  sum  equal  to  ^^3,200  or  $16,000;  a 
lady  of  rank,  "  in  memory  of  her  son,"  gives  to  Terra- 
cina  ;^8ooo  or  f 40,000  to  establish  a  charity;  and  various 
smaller  bequests  for  benevolent  purposes  are  mentioned.^ 

One  of  the  nearest  approaches  to  the  charitable  associ- 
ations of  the  Christian  world,  were  the  curious  collegia  of 
the  Roman  empire  in  the  first  and  second  centuries.  The 
history  of  these  has  been  especially  brought  forward 
through  the  burial  inscriptions^  recently  deciphered. 

They  seem  to  have  been  a  kind  of  social  clubs  or 
masonic  associations,  where  all  were  equal,  where  fraternal 
meals  were  common,  and  monthly  payments  prepared  a 
fund  for  sepulture,  for  common  festivals,  and  sometimes 
for  ornamental  buildings.  They  formed  a  natural  pro- 
totype for  the  Christian  Churches  and  their  charitable 
societies  ;  but,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  they  did  not 
use  their  funds  for  the  poor.  They  cultivated  the  habit 
of  equality,  and  the  fraternal  spirit,  but  they  did  not  feel 
or  express  "  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity,"  and  therefore 
died  out,  or  were  converted  into  Christian  societies.  Yet 
the  ideal  was  sometimes  there,  as  in  one  beautiful  in- 
scription on  a  woman's  tomb,  who  is  pictured  as  "  the 
mother  of  all  human  beings,  ready  to  help  all,  and  who 
had  made  the  life  of  no  one  sad."  * 

*  Sen.  de  Rhet,  71,  72,  ts,  77,  79,  "S- 

^  Orelli  and  Mommsen,  quoted  in  Boissier,   La  Religion  Romatne, 
i,  191,  and  2,  3,  V.  4. 

*  De  Rossi,  La  Roma  sott.  Christ. 

*  Omnium    hominum    parens,   omnibus    subvenicns,  tristcm   fecit 
neminem. 


CHRISTIAN  CHARITY.  lOJ 

But  ^&\v,  however,  of  such  institutions  existed  in  the 
pre-Christian  period.  The  great  masses  suffering  poverty 
and  orphanage  in  the  Roman  empire  remained  almost 
untouched  by  any  influence  of  compassion  or  any  effort 
df  relief. 

With  Christianity  began  the  organized  and  individual 
charity  of  modern  Europe,  which  for  these  eighteen  cen- 
turies has  wiped  away  so  many  tears,  softened  so  much 
suffering,  saved  so  many  young  lives  from  misery  and 
sin,  ministered  at  so  many  death-beds,  made  the  solitary 
evening  of  life  sweet  to  so  many  forsaken  ones,  and  the 
morning  glad  to  so  many  who  would  have  been  born  to 
sorrow  and  shame  ;  which  in  so  many  countries  has  cared 
for  the  sick,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  crippled,  the  outcast 
and  tempted  ;  the  young,  the  orphan,  the  foundling,  and 
the  aged.  Surely,  if  anything  is  a  fore-gleam  of  that 
kingdom  of  heaven  which  is  yet  to  shine  over  the  earth, 
it  is  the  brotherhood  of  spirit,  shown  in  the  charity  of  the 
modern  world.  This  is  most  distinctly  the  fruit  of  Christ's 
teachings.  And  yet  the  Master  did  not  lay  any  extraor- 
dinary weight  on  alms-giving.  He  simply  taught  the  love 
of  man  through  love  to  Himself,  that  the  poorest  and 
lowest  of  the  human  race  represented  Himself,  and  what 
was  done  to  them  was  done  to  Him.  The  equal  brother- 
hood of  man  came  forth  from  His  teachings,  and  all 
human  beings  of  whatever  rank,  or  under  whatever  dis- 
abilities of  misfortune,  became  of  equal  value  in  the  eyes 
of  His  followers,  as  being  those  for  whom  He  lived  and  in 
behalf  of  whom  He  felt  it  not  unworthy  to  die.  The  un- 
fortunate had  henceforth  around  them  the  halo  of  the  great 
Sufferer,  and  a  very  different  place  in  the  sympathies  of 
the  new  world  of  Europe. 

The  Christian  Churches  became  very  early  centres  of 
charity.       Refuges   for  orphans    (orphano-trophiae)    were 


I02  GESTA    CHRTSTL 

formed  in  connection  with  them,  and  hospitals  for  mothers  j 
many  of  them  maintained  free  "  strangers'  rests  "  (xeno- 
dochiae).  The  emperor  Julian's  famous  letter  to  Arsenius, 
speaks  in  reproach  of  the  Galilaeans  supporting  not  only 
their  own  poor,  but  also  those  of  the  Romans. 

Valentinian  in  364  A.D.,  in  a  proclamation,  says  that  the 
true  worship  ^  consists  in  helping  the  poor  and  relieving 
those  in  necessity,  while  he  charges  the  bishops  to  watch 
over  the  poor  and  save  them  from  exactions.  Several  of 
the  Christian  emperors  took  under  their  especial  protection 
houses  for  the  orphan  and  infirm.^  The  Code  pronounces 
it  a  pious  duty  to  support  orphan-asylums.^ 

Justinian's  Code  speaks  of  hospitals  for  mothers.* 

Churches  were  constantly  enriched  by  the  offerings  of 
Christian  charity,  in  order  that  they  might  extend  their 
benefactions ;  and  the  clergy  were  allowed  especial  pri- 
vileges, inasmuch  as  their  property  was  employed  for  the 
good  of  others.^  This  is  the  beginning  of  that  ecclesiastical 
endowment  and  freedom  from  public  burdens,  which  after- 
wards became  so  great  a  weight  upon  many  European 
communities.  It  proves,  at  least  in  that  age,  the  fervour 
of  charity  under  the  new  influences. 

The  month  of  December,  which  had  been  the  especial 
month  in  which  gladiatorial  games  and  cruel  shows  were 
provided  by  the  rich  for  the  poor  in  memory  of  the  dead, 
became  the  month  of  offerings  for  the  poor  and  suffering 
in  memory  of  Him  who  had  died  for  all. 

The  first  hospital  is  said  to  have  been  built  in  Rome  at 

*  Corp.  Jur.y  I,  3,  32. 

^  Verus  cultus  est  adjuvare  pauperes  (sic)  et  positos  in  necessitate. 
{Corp.  Jur.  I,  4,  I-) 

'  Pium  atque  religiosum  officium  pro  tempore  orphanotrophos  ita 
peragere  convenit.    {Corp.  Jur.,  i,  3.) 

*  Cod.  Theod.y  i.  2,  17,  22. 
'  Ibid.,  xvi.  2,  la 


PAUPERISM  NOT  ENCOURAGED.  103 

the  end  of  the  fourth  century.  A  little  later,  Pulcheria, 
sister  of  Theodosius  the  younger,  built  and  endowed 
several  at  Constantinople ;  they  increased  under  later 
reigns.^  The  Church  councils,  by  repeated  acts  of  legisla- 
tion, imposed  on  the  clergy  and  citizens  the  obligation 
of  supporting,  feeding,  and  clothing  the  poor,  and  these 
declarations  were  re-affirmed  in  every  city  by  the  local 
clergy. 

Effects  of  Charity. — It  has  been  alleged  with  some 
apparent  justice,  that  this  spirit  of  Christian  charity,  which 
has  made  modern  society  so  different  from  ancient,  has 
cultivated  dependence,  and  increased  pauperism  or  that 
kind  of  poverty  which  is  without  hope  or  energy. 

But  it  should  be  remembered  that  there  is  nothing  in 
the  teachings  of  Christ  or  the  apostles  which  favoured 
indiscriminate  alms-giving,  or  the  supporting  the  poor 
without  labour.  "  If  a  man  will  not  work  neither  shall 
he  eat "  is  evidently  a  favourite  proverb  with  the  great 
apostle.  He  himself  laboured  with  his  own  hands.  The 
disciples  were  working  people,  and  Christ,  in  human 
relations,  belonged  to  the  working-classes.  The  type  of 
character  He  stamped  on  men  was  the  very  opposite  of 
the  idle  and  dependent  kind  ;  it  was  earnest,  self-controlled, 
under  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility,  looking  continually 
to  Him  to  whom  man  should  give  an  account  of  every 
word  and  work,  with  a  conviction  of  being  the  child  of 
God,  and  therefore  calling  no  man  master.  It  was  such  a 
character  as  could  not  possibly  in  the  long  course  of  ages 
sustain  tyranny,  or  support  even  priestly  arbitrary  rule, 
or  encourage  any  form  of  pauperism  and  dependence.  It 
seems  to  contain  the  stuff  out  of  which  republicans  and 
lovers  of  freedom  in  all  ages  are  made,  and  from  which  the 
most  independent  and  self-relying  (because  God-relying) 
^  Cod.  Just.,  i.  2,  17,  22. 


t04  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

races  are  formed.  Yet  forms  of  government  or  laws  re- 
lating to  the  management  of  the  poor  were  the  last  things 
which  Christ  would  interfere  with. 

The  excessive  and  unreasoning  alms-giving  of  European 
countries,  and  the  monastic  associations  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  are  not  due  to  the  legitimate  and  logical  influence  of 
Christianity.  They  are  a  natural  re-action  from  the  selfish- 
ness of  the  classic  period,  and  sprang  from  the  fearful 
economical  condition  in  which  Europe  found  itself  at  the 
destruction  of  the  Roman  empire.  So  profound  and  ap- 
parently remediless  were  the  evils  of  the  civilized  world, 
so  impossible  did  it  seem  then  to  reach  the  sources  of  the 
universal  calamity,  that  a  humane  person,  and  above  all, 
one  filled  with  this  new  love  of  God  and  man  might  well 
think  he  had  done  enough  and  the  best,  in  sacrificing  all 
to  relieve  present  human  misery.  He  might  be  willing  to 
take  on  him  the  garb  of  a  servant,  and,  unlike  his  Master, 
merely  minister  to  terrible  bodily  wants,  without  regard 
to  what  was  beyond  or  to  the  causes  of  pauperism  and 
suffering.  He  could  become  an  alms-distributing  monk  ; 
or,  wearied  out  with  the  intense  struggle  to  support  life 
amid  a  world  of  suffering  and  selfishness,  it  would  not  be 
strange  that  he  should  join  one  of  the  "  mutual  assistance 
societies  "  of  those  ages,  and  withdraw  to  a  convent  where 
he  could  pass  his  days  in  quiet  labour,  peaceful  studies, 
and  rapt  devotion.  The  world  of  the  Roman  empire 
seemed  perishing  ;  the  imperial  city  was  half-destroyed ; 
the  monk  felt  only  too  happy  to  belong  to  the  city  of 
God,  and  to  keep  his  thoughts  on  the  world  unseen  and 
eternal. 

Christianity  cannot  be  considered  directly  responsible 
for  monasticism  any  more  than  for  numerous  other  vaga- 
ries of  the  human  mind  since  its  advent.  A  very  large 
part  of  the  wealth  of  the  community  which  before  Christ 


DISTRIBVTION  OF   WEALTH.  105 

was  devoted  to  the  luxuries  of  the  rich,  or  was  expended 
in  debasing  and  cruel  spectacles,  was  henceforth  mainly 
distributed  among  the  labouring  classes  through  hospitals, 
asylums,  free-schools,  institutions  of  learning  and  various 
charities. 

Charity  is  not  the  best  form  of  the  distribution  of  the 
profits  of  labour,  but  it  is  certainly  one  form.  Education, 
as  endowed  by  individuals  or  the  State,  is  another  and 
better  form.  And  this  began  in  Europe  especially  after 
Christianity,  though  the  efforts  of  the  Arabs  in  this  direc- 
tion in  subsequent  ages  should  never  be  forgotten. 

We  do  not  claim,  of  course,  that  the  Christian  religion 
in  the  Roman  period  solved  the  problem  of  ages — the 
proper  distribution  of  wealth.  We  only  urge  that  its 
principles  and  the  words  of  its  Founder  tended  towards  a 
far  more  equitable  division  of  property  than  the  world  has 
yet  known  ;  that,  as  its  truths  more  and  more  control  men, 
there  will  continually  be  in  some  form  or  other  a  more 
equal  distribution  of  the  profits  of  labour,  and  that  sonie- 
thing  of  the  just  sharing  by  those  who  have  with  those  who 
have  not  was  seen  at  that  period. 

The  method  of  distribution  will  var^  with  each  succed- 
ing  age. 


CHAPTER  X. 

RESUMfi  OF  REFORMS   IN   THE    ROMAN    PERIOIX 

The  reforms  to  be  traced  in  the  foregoing  chapters  show 
the  natural  and  legitimate  influence  of  the  Christian 
system.  Parents  are  bid  by  the  apostle  to  respect  their 
children,  and  under  Christ's  ideas,  the  son  stands  with  the 
father  as  a  common  child  of  God  whose  rights  and  claims 
are  to  be  equally  considered  before  Him.  Such  a  tyranny 
as  that  of  the  Roman  Patria  Potestas  could  not  possibly 
exist  for  a  long  period  where  society  was  even  feebly 
touched  with  the  spirit  of  Christ 

The  Stoical  spirit  of  humanity  had  undoubtedly  softened 
the  extreme  features  of  harshness  of  this  rule,  but  it  did 
not  come  to  an  end  till  the  new  Faith  had  reached  the 
legislation  of  the  empire.  Equally  so  with  the  succession 
of  property.  The  humane  views  of  the  Stoical  school  had 
already  modified  the  strict  tendencies  of  the  Roman  law, 
but  it  was  only  after  the  new  doctrines  of  brotherhood 
and  justice,  taught  by  the  followers  of  the  great  Jewish 
teachers,  had  touched  the  imperial  legislators,  that  suc- 
cession followed  the  bonds  of  blood  and  moved  in  the 
channels  of  true  equity. 

The  power  of  Christianity  on  the  Roman  world  was 
especially  the  influence  of  a  Person,  of  a  pure  and  elevated 
character  who  claimed  to  be  a  supernatural  Being  in  his 
relations  to  men  and  God,  and  who  was  the  Founder  of 
a  new  religion.  His  nature  alone,  from  its  purity  and 
elevation,  seemed  to  sweep  away  unnatural  passions  from 

io6 


THE  CONQUESTS  OF  CHRIST.  107 

among  men,  and  both  in  the  Roman  empire,  and  since 
among  all  races  following  Him,  unnatural  vice — one  of  the 
greatest  evils  of  antiquity, — has  substantially  passed  away. 
His  character  and  teachings  naturally  checked  and  finally 
rooted  out  such  a  barbarous  cruelty  and  selfish  practice,  as 
the  exposure  of  children  by  parents  ;  and  through  His 
influence  began  the  long  series  of  charities  for  children  and 
the  poor  and  unhappy,  which  have  come  down  through 
the  centuries.  He  was  not  only  in  advance  of  the  Roman 
period,  but  of  all  ages  since,  in  teaching  the  duty  of  a  more 
equitable  distribution  of  wealth  in  behalf  of  the  poor,  the 
unfortunate  and  the  labouring  classes. 

The  influence  of  the  great  Friend  of  humanity  was  espe- 
cially seen  in  the  Roman  empire  in  checking  licentious  and 
cruel  sports,  so  common  and  so  demoralizing  among  the 
classic  races  ;  and  in  bringing  on  a  new  legislation  of  bene- 
ficence in  favour  of  the  outcast  woman,  the  mutilated,  the 
prisoner,  and  the  slave.  For  the  first  time  the  stern  and 
noble  features  of  Roman  law  took  on  an  unwonted  expres- 
sion of  gentle  humanity  and  sweet  compassion,  under  the 
power  of  Him  who  was  the  brother  of  the  unfortunate  and 
the  sinful.  The  great  followers  of  the  Teacher  of  Galilee 
became  known  as  the  "  brothers  of  the  slave,"  and  the 
Christian  religion  began  its  struggle  of  many  centuries 
with  those  greatest  of  human  evils — slavery  and  serfdom. 
It  did  not  indeed  succeed  in  abolishing  them  ;  but  the 
remarkable  mitigations  of  the  system  in  Roman  law,  and 
the  constant  drift  towards  a  condition  of  liberty,  and  the 
increasing  emancipation  throughout  the  Roman  empire, 
are  plainly  fruits  of  its  principles.  All  these  and  similar 
steps  of  humane  progress  are  the  "  Gesta  Christi  "  and  the 
direct  effects  of  His  personal  influence  on  the  world. 

As  to  the  position  of  woman,  it  was  the  continual  re- 
proach of  the  early  enemies  of  the  Christians  that  they 


io8  GESTA   CHRIST!, 

put  woman  on  so  high  a  position.  Women  had  from  the 
first  a  strong  influence  in  the  Church  ;  the  earliest  converts 
from  all  ranks  of  society  were  women,  and  the  example 
of  Christ  and  the  apostles  has  given  the  key-note  to  all 
modern  civilization  in  the  tender  respect  and  dignity  thrown 
around  the  weaker  sex.  In  this,  the  Jews  of  the  imperial 
era  only  followed  out  much  of  the  early  teachings  of  the 
Sacred  Book.  The  picture  of  the  Jewish  woman  in  the 
last  chapter  of  Proverbs  (xxxi.  IO-31)  might  describe  the 
position  of  a  Christian  lady  with  many  dependents  in  the 
nineteenth  century  in  any  civilized  portion  of  America  or 
Europe. 

At  the  period  of  which  we  are  speaking,  the  peculiar  in- 
fluence of  the  German  tribes  upon  the  position  of  woman 
had  not  been  much  felt  in  the  Empire.  The  "tutelage" 
of  woman  existed  among  them  also.  There  was  nothing 
in  the  Stoical  mode  of  thought,  or  in  the  teachings  and 
example  of  Stoics,  which  especially  tended  to  elevate 
woman.  The  current  opinion  in  the  cultivated  classes  of 
the  Roman  empire,  if  we  may  judge  from  poets,  satirists, 
and  fragments  of  speeches  handed  down,  was  of  profound 
contempt  for  woman  in  the  moral  and  intellectual  aspect. 
There  were  of  course  happy  marriages,  and  many  instances 
of  affection  for  sisters  and  female  relatives  or  friends, 
and  the  annals  of  Rome  presented  not  a  few  examples 
of  very  heroic  and  superior  women  ;  but,  in  general, 
Roman  women  merited  by  their  conduct  and  their  lack  of 
intelligence  in  the  imperial  era,  the  contempt  and  censure 
so  freely  showered  on  them  by  the  men. 

The  change  in  their  legal  position  and  the  removal  of 
tutelage,  is  plainly  due  to  the  effects  of  the  new  Faith. 
Their  own  character  rose  with  the  increased  respect 
accorded  them  in  the  rising  Church.  They  became  the 
confessors  of  the  Faith  under  the  most  brutal  and  savage 


INFLUENCE   ON  WOMAN.  109 

persecutions ;  their  martyrdoms  on  the  cross,  in  the  bloody 
arena  or  under  frightful  tortures,  formed  the  most  touching 
incidents  in  Christian  traditions.  The  sufferings  and  death 
of  women  in  the  early  ages  of  the  Faith  for  ever  hallowed 
the  sex  in  the  history  of  the  Church. 

Marriage,  too,  under  the  Christian  idea,  was  a  bond  of 
equal  union,  and  the  highest  spiritual  partnership.  It 
recognised  the  two  partners  as  equal  before  God,  and  as 
of  one  flesh,  even  though  different  offices  were  assigned  to 
each.  The  Roman  tutelage  could  not  exist  long  under 
it.  It  is  true  that  this  idea  of  marriage  existed  with 
the  Stoics,  but  it  was  seldom  realized  ;  and  what  the 
Roman  practice  became,  we  have  seen.  Yet  the  new  Faith 
would  not  permit  the  entire  freedom  and  laxity  which 
arose  under  the  Roman  "  free  marriage,"  any  more  than  it 
recognised  the  entire  subjection  and  inferiority  of  the  wife 
under  the  ancient  Latin  marriage.  It  demanded  faithful- 
ness, virtue,  and  propriety  ;  it  urged  the  indissolubility 
of  marriage,  except  for  unfaithfulness  or  its  moral  equi- 
valent ;  it  taught  the  continuance  of  the  union  through 
endless  ages  of  a  coming  life.  So  it  happened,  that  this 
Faith  had  a  composite  influence  on  the  position  of  woman. 
It  strengthened  the  marriage  tie,  and  therefore,  restrained 
woman  of  the  great  freedom  she  had  been  enjoying  as  a 
married  woman  under  Roman  practice.  It  gave  her  on  the 
other  hand,  greater  dignity,  both  as  wife  and  unmarried, 
and  removed  her  from  under  the  excessive  restraints  of  the 
old  Roman  law.  The  Church,  with  its  Canon  law,  has  un- 
doubtedly often  gone  beyond  the  teachings  of  its  Founder, 
and  subjected  the  wife  to  unreasonable  legal  restraints. 
But  at  the  period  of  which  we  speak,  the  power  of  both 
Religion  and  Church  entered  Roman  society  as  a  thoroughly 
purifying  and  ennobling  agency.  It  did  not  accomplish, 
indeed,    all  that  in  its  nature  it  was  intended  to  effect ; 


no  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

the  Roman  habits  were  too  long  formed  and  the  influence 
of  both  laws  and  emperors  was  too  weak  to  eradicate 
them.  Moreover,  there  comes  a  period  in  the  history 
of  the  decadence  of  a  race  when  its  moral  condition  is 
aparently  beyond  the  reach  of  any  system  of  morality,  or 
of  the  purest  religion.'  We  know  that  moral  changes  are 
wrought  out  by  slow  moral  means,  and  that  it  is  possible 
for  a  race  as  for  an  individual  to  reach  such  depths  of 
corruption  and  weakness  as  to  forbid  any  reasonable 
possibility  of  renovation  and  restoration. 

The  Roman  race,  and  many  of  the  races  under  its  sway, 
had  evidently  fallen  to  that  stage  of  degeneracy.  They 
were  eaten  away  by  vices  and  corruption  beyond  any  hope 
of  redemption.  Their  great  historian — the  prophet  of 
evil — Tacitus,  saw  this  with  singular  clearness,  and  this 
thought  inspires  his  solemn  and  sombre  eloquence.  But 
he  sees  no  redemption  possible.  Human  affairs  seem  to 
him  the  sport  of  unseen  powers,^  and  final  and  general 
ruin  the  only  and  probable  ending.  The  poets  are  full  of 
this  melancholy  tone.  The  moralists  take  refuge  in  the 
sublime  truths  of  Stoicism  and  create  an  ideal  city  of 
virtue  which  shall  take  the  place  of  the  imperial  city, 
soon  to  perish.  It  may  be,  it  was  this  idea  which  lay  at 
the  bottom  of  the  solemn  conviction  of  the  apostles,  that 
the  end  of  all  things  was  at  hand  :  the  world  of  the  day 
was  coming  to  an  end  ;  not  even  the  religion  of  Jesus  could 
save  it. 

What   could   preserve    European   society  .-*      The   usual 

'  This  seems  the  condition  of  the  Sandwich  Islanders  at  this 
present  time  ;  the  race  is  dying  out,  and  Christian  influences  do  not 
reach  it  thoroughly  enough  to  save  it.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Fijis, 
a  more  savage,  but  vigorous  race,  show  the  genume  action  of  the 
Christian  Faith.     (See  Miss  Cummings  on  the  Fijis.) 

^  Res  humanae  superis  ludibrio. 


A   FRESH  RACE  NEEDED.  m 

Answer  has  been,  the  invasion  and  intermingHng  of  the 
German  and  Keltic  races.  But,  as  we  shall  show  later,  it 
was  not  the  fresh  infusion  of  barbarian  blood  alone  which 
could  renovate  the  world.  The  northern  tribes  brought 
indeed  a  more  healthy  physical  nature  into  the  Roman 
empire,  and  purer  habits,  and  characters  less  enervated  by 
luxury  or  corrupted  by  vice.  But  they  had  their  own  vices; 
they  were  cruel,  revengeful  and  passionate  ;  certain  lusts 
had  made  deep  inroads  in  their  natures  ;  the  paternal 
tyranny  and  a  tutelage  of  woman  existed  among  them. 
Their  ideas  of  justice  were  much  less  developed  than  were 
those  of  the  Romans  ;  and  humanity  was  scarcely  under- 
stood by  them.  Yet  from  the  first,  they  formed  a  fruitful 
soil  in  which  Christianity  could  work.  It  is  altogether 
probable  that  this  Faith  can  more  easily  plant  itself  in  a 
wild  barbarous  nature,  with  many  generous  qualities,  than 
in  a  more  cultivated  mind,  where  the  pride  and  vices  of 
luxury  have  been  long  growing  rankly.  Without  the 
Christian  influences,  the  northern  barbarians  might  have 
either  overwhelmed  Roman  civilization  and  brought  on  a 
night  of  barbarism,  or  have  been  themselves  corrupted  and 
destroyed  by  the  vices  and  sensuality  which  surrounded 
them ;  in  either  case,  they  could  not  have  renovated  the 
world.  Their  influence  would  perhaps  have  been  like  that 
of  the  Sclavonians  on  the  Greeks  ;  and  no  important  result 
for  human  progress  have  appeared.  The  advance  of  man- 
kind for  future  ages  seemed  at  that  time  to  depend  on  two 
factors :  the  power  of  a  system  of  morality  supported  by 
supernatural  sanctions,  or  upon  Religion  ;  and  a  fresh  race 
in  which  this  religion  was  to  manifest  itself  The  Roman 
and  Greek  races  were  in  their  last  stages  of  degeneracy. 
Physical  evils  and  weakness  of  will  had  been  transmitted 
for  generations.  Unnatural  vices,  the  sign  of  final  decrepi- 
tude, had  attacked  all  classes.     Marriage  had  become  a 


112  GESTA    CHRISTL 

farce,  or  the  feeblest  bond.  Exposure  of  children  was 
practised  to  an  incredible  extent.  The  spirit  of  cruelty 
was  nourished  by  every  device  and  encouraged  by  in- 
cessant bloody  sports  ;  even  human  sacrifices  were  offered 
at  the  altars  of  the  gods.  Slavery  had  eaten  out  the  life 
of  the  nation  and  wasted  its  substance.  Owing  to  forced 
labour,  imperial  tyranny,  bad  finance  and  wars,  an  almost 
immeasurable  pauperism  covered  the  empire.  The  only 
help  possible  seemed  in  utterly  breaking  up  society  and 
introducing  fresh  blood  and  new  institutions. 

A  new  religion  or  a  system  of  exalted  morality  could  not 
penetrate  to  the  heart  of  Roman  society  as  it  then  was. 
It  reached  certain  individuals,  who  became  conspicuous 
instances  to  all  ages  of  its  power.  But  it  left  untouched 
great  masses  of  men,  and  therefore  many  of  the  evil 
habits  and  practices  of  a  sensual  past.  This  was  the 
more  true  in  that  the  new  Faith  soon  became  a  State 
Religion,  and  therefore  was  upheld  by  force  and  self 
interest,  instead  of  being  left  to  its  own  spiritual  power. 
It  was  professed  by  multitudes  who  never  felt  its  con- 
verting influences. 

What  Christianity  could  do  with  an  old  and  degenerate 
race  under  a  State  Church,  where  religion  became  an  ex- 
ternality and  faith  a  matter  of  government,  we  see  in 
the  dreary  history  of  the  Eastern  empire.  The  power  of 
the  system  never  touched  the  heart  of  the  people.  If 
we  except  the  grand  legacy  of  Roman  law,  as  reformed  by 
Christian  influences,  left  by  Justinian  and  his  predecessors, 
we  can  hardly  point  to  one  blessing  transmitted  to  the 
world  by  the  nominally  Christian  empire,  whose  seat  was 
at  Constantinople.  The  Greek  population  needed  the 
German  blood. 

What  a  fresh  barbarian  race  could  accomplish  in  reno- 
vating the  world  without  Christianity,  we  may  see  in  the 


A  BARBAROUS  RACE   WITHOUT  CHRISTIANITY.  113 

effects  of  the  Turkish  conquest  on  the  races  of  the  Greek 
empire.  The  Turks  had  many  of  the  noble  savage  quali- 
ties of  the  ancient  Germans  ;  their  faith  in  some  points 
was  purer  than  the  half-idolatrous  worship  of  the  Greek 
masses,  and  for  this  reason  and  others,  they  did  not 
accept  the  faith  of  the  conquered  races,  as  did  the  north- 
ern barbarians. 

Christianity  never  mitigated  their  savagery  or  purified 
their  passions.  Under  Mohammedism,  Turkey  and  some 
of  the  fairest  provinces  of  the  world  have  been  kept  out  of 
the  march  of  human  progress.  Sensuality  and  unnatural 
vice  are  said  to  prevail  as  they  did  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  even  this  century  has  witnessed  cruelties  and  bar- 
barisms such  as  were  common  in  Europe  before  the  new 
Faith  appeared. 

For  the  coming  triumph  of  Christianity,  or  even  its 
partial  infusion  into  European  life,  there  were  needed 
fresh  races  or  peoples,  not  exposed  to  Roman  corruption, 
who  would  receive  its  teachings  gladly.  These  appeared 
in  the  Germanic  and  Keltic  tribes  ;  and  their  influence, 
as  modified  by  Christianity,  on  the  moral  progress  of 
Europe  is  now  to  be  examined. 


IL 


POWER  OF  THE   CHRISTIAN  FAITH  OK  THE  HABITS^ 
MORALS,  AND  LAWS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

POSITION   OF  WOMAN   UNDER   THE   GERMAN   TRIBES. 

When  the  German  and  Keltic  tribes  first  met  the  in- 
fluences of  the  Christian  Faith,  they  had  about  them 
something  of  the  wholesome  purity,  as  well  as  the  savage- 
ness  of  the  vigorous  life  in  the  forests  and  on  the  waters. 
For  some  unexplained  reason,  woman  held,  in  the  Teu- 
tonic tribes,  a  peculiar  and  revered  position.  It  is  true 
that  she  was  under  the  absolute  authority  of  her  husband 
or  guardian,  and  could  be  sold  by  the  former,  or  bought 
or  beaten  or  killed.  Yet  she  was  the  companion  of  his 
labours  and  dangers  ;^  her  counsel  in  moments  of  great 
peril  was  looked  upon  by  the  tribe  as  almost  inspired  ; 
she  was  often  the  prophetess  of  revealed  destinies  ;  she 
encouraged  the  men  in  their  fiercest  battles,  and  it  was  said 
that,  to  the  soldier  despairing  and  dying,  her  whisper 
would  bring  back  life  and  courage,  and  often  arouse 
him  to  victory."  Repeatedly  in  their  long  struggles  with 
the  Romans,  have  women  of  the  Germans  deliberately 
murdered  themselves,  rather  than  submit  to  dishonour. 
It  may  not  be  reasonable  to  trust  entirely  to  an  epi- 
grammatic satirist  like  Tacitus,  or  to  a  fiery  denunciator 
like  Salvian,  yet  under  the  comparisons  of  both  there  must 
be  some  truth.     The  purity  of  German  women   must  have 

*  Tacitus. 

*  Gidd,  Condition  privde  de  la  Fe}n7ne.     Tacitus. 


xi8  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

been  a  striking  contrast  with  Roman  impurity  ;  and  ac- 
cording to  the  "  eloquent  priest  of  Marseilles,"  the  virtue 
of  the  Gallic  Christians  made  but  a  poor  appearance 
placed  beside  this  heathen  chastity.  The  Teutons  are 
represented  as  at  first  shocked  with  the  abominations  they 
beheld  in  Roman  cities  ;  they  destroyed  the  houses  of  lust 
and  even  slew  the  women  who  were  instruments  of  such 
debasing  pleasure.  The  old  sagas  show  the  estimate  the 
early  Teutons  put  on  female  purity ;  and  the  ancient 
legislation  which  affixes  such  severe  penalties  for  even 
innocent  familiarities,  and  which  has  scales  of  penalties 
for  every  approach  against  woman's  virtue,  prove  how 
early  this  was  embodied  in  law  and  custom. 

Unlike  most  barbarous  or  semi-civilized  tribes,  the 
Germans  had  succeeded  in  preserving  the  morals  of  their 
women  measurably  pure.  It  was  this  undoubtedly  which 
retained  the  physical  vigour  of  these  tribes,  and  gave 
them  the  bodily  force  which  overwhelmed  the  degenerate 
Romans,  and  which  has  kept  their  descendants  at  the  head 
of  the  world's  affairs  even  to  this  day.  Yet  it  will  not  be 
wise  to  exaggerate  these  qualities.  Such  writers  as  Tacitus 
and  Salvian  have  no  doubt  painted  their  virtues  in  brighter 
colours  in  order  to  throw  Roman  vice  into  darker  shade. 
Polygamy  was  not  unknown  among  them,  or  unnatural 
vice.^  The  absolute  tyranny  of  the  husband  often  ended 
in  cruelty  and  bitter  oppression.  The  provision  in  certain 
laws  that  the  husband  could  not  put  out  the  eyes  or  break 
the  limbs  of  the  unhappy  wife,^  shows  to  what  violence  he 
did  sometimes  proceed. 

It  is  true  that  as  time  went  on  the  archaic  form  of 
purchase  of  the  wife  became  more  and  more  a  purchase 

'  See  Tacitus.     Corpora  infames.     The  one  guilty  of  these  vices 
was  called  by  the  Anglo-Saxons  bccdling ;  by  the  Salians,  cynitus. 
2  See  Davoud-Oghlou's  Legislation  des  ancietis  Germains. 


GERMAN  CHASTITY.  119 

of  the  guardianship  and  not  of  the  person  of  the  woman, 
and  finally  was  only  the  mode  of  providing  a  dower. 
Yet  in  the  early  centuries  marriage  with  the  Germans 
was  the  buying^  of  a  woman  like  any  other  property,  and 
one  of  the  first  endowments  of  a  wife  was  the  barbarous 
and  coarse  MoTgengabe.  Woman  was  the  maiden  serving 
her  lord,  who  knelt  at  his  feet  during  his  meal  and  yielded 
to  his  every  whim.^  There  was  a  coarse  and  brutal  side  to 
German  marriage,  as  well  as  a  more  elevated.  A  wife 
rated  at  so  many  pieces  of  silver  could  not  be  the  ideal 
"  socium  laborum  et  periculorum,"  companion  of  labours 
and  dangers,  whom  Tacitus  pictures.  Nothing  shows  the 
degrading  side  of  this  connection  better  than  that  provision 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  law,  which  we  shall  quote,  in  regard 
to  the  compensation  made  to  a  husband  for  the  adultery 
of  his  wife,  wherein  a  woman  seems  to  be  valued  like  any 
other  property,  and  the  offender  is  obliged  to  furnish 
another  wife  in  place  of  the  false  one.^  Whatever  purity 
the  Teutons  may  have  preserved  in  their  native  wilds,  they 
did  not  long  retain  under  the  temptations  of  the  Roman 
cities. 

When  Christianity  first  touched  them  they  were  begin- 
ning to  feel  these  degenerating  influences.  It  was  fortu- 
nate for  the  future  of  Europe  that  the  elevating  power  of 
this  Religion  came  to  aid  the  German  habit  of  purity  and 
estimate  of  woman,  before  Roman  and  Greek  vices  had 
sapped  the  Teutonic  character.  The  best  results  of  modern 
civilization  have  probably  come  from  the  position  given 
to  women  in  Europe  by  German  customs,  purified  by  the 

^  According  to  Grimm  (Z>.  Alfeiihiimer)  the  phrase  "  buy  a  woman  " 
for  "  take  a  wife  "  came  dovm  into  the  Middle  Ages  in  many  parts  of 
Germany.     (P.  421.) 

■  Leg.  Aethel.,  32, 


I20  GESTA   CHRIST!, 

Christian  Faith.  That  modern  society  has  not  decayed 
Hke  ancient,  and  that  pure  family-life  still  supplies  fresh 
forces  to  races  a  thousand  years  old,  is  due  above  all  to  the 
teachings  of  Christ,  acting  on  German  barbaric  virtue  and 
respect  for  woman.  The  peculiar  chivalry  in  the  sentiment 
towards  woman  which  softened  manners  and  civilized 
certain  classes  so  much  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  which  still 
ornaments  modern  society,  is  a  combined  product  of  the 
German  and  the  Christian,  and  is  a  feature  unknown  to 
classic  races. 

German  Tutelage — The  Tutelage  or  Miind  {mundiiimy 
probably  from  inajuis)  of  the  German  woman  was  very 
different  from  the  Roman  inanus.  It  was  a  guardian- 
ship more  in  the  interest  of  the  woman  and  ward  than 
of  the  husband  or  guardian.  The  "  subjection  of  woman  " 
rested  on  a  different  basis  from  that  implied,  and  often 
acknowledged  in  the  Roman  law.  There  was  none  of 
that  cynical  contempt  for  her  which  even  the  Stoical  jurists 
could  not  avoid  expressing  as  for  an  inferior  and  very 
uncertain  being.  The  German  theory  of  tutelage  simply 
rested  on  the  fact  that  she  could  not  bear  arms,  and  there- 
fore could  not  appear  personally  in  the  only  forms  of  legal 
trial  known  to  that  people.  She  must  be  represented  by 
another  who  must  guard  her  rights  and  her  interests.  It 
has  been  said  by  a  thorough  investigator  of  this  field,^  that 
throughout  ancient  German  legislation  "  woman  appears 
with  a  mingled  character  of  feebleness  and  of  grandeur," 
which  would  not  badly  describe  her  position  in  modern 
civilization. 

No  German  woman  ^  of  the  higher  classes  was  permitted 

*  Sallantin.  De  la  Ptiissance  Maritale  en  Droit  Rottiaiti  et  en 
Droit  Frafigais. 

2  Nulli  mulicri  liceat  in  suae  potestatis  arbitrio,  id  est  sine  mundio 
vivere.    {Rolharis.,  p.  205.) 


GERMAN  TUTELAGE.  lai 

to  live  without  a  guardian.^  The  tutelage  passed  from  the 
father  to  the  husband.^  If  the  husband  died  the  relatives 
of  the  widow  could  liberate  the  tutelage  {iniindium  liberare) 
and  buy  rights  of  guardianship.  The  tutelage  gave  the 
husband  the  right  to  sell,  punish,  or  kill  his  wife.  If  he 
killed  her  when  innocent  he  was  obliged  to  pay  a  heavy 
fine  to  the  parents  who  had  given  her  to  him.' 

The  original  form  of  marriage  with  the  Teutons  indi- 
cated a  purchase ;  with  the  Scandinavians  it  is  called  in 
the  sagas  brod-kaup,^  kaup  mali,  miindi-kaicp.  By  the  law 
of  the  Alemanns,  if  the  father  demand  the  wife  back,  the 
husband  must  return  her  and  compensate  her  with  forty 
solidij"  By  the  Saxon  law  the  future  husband  must  pay 
three  hundred  solidi  ^  to  the  parents. 

The  law  of  the  Visigoths  speaks  of  the  "  price  "  given 
by  the  groom  to  the  parents ;  '^  the  Burgundians  give  it  a 
similar  name  ;  the  Lombards  call  it  meta.  The  Francs  in 
later  time,  when  it  had  become  a  mere  form,  speak  of  it 
as  "per  solidum  et  de7iaritun!' 

The  laws  of  king  Ine  (688  a.d)    say :    "  Gif  man  wif 

*  Megede  unde  wif  muten  aver  vormunden  hebben  an  jewelker 
klage.  {Sachsensp.,  1,46.)  Mulier  semper  potestate  viri  aut  potestate 
Curtis  regiae  debeat  permanere.     {Ed.  Rotliar.,  p.  205.) 

2  Maritus  est  tutor  uxoris  post  deponsationem.  {Sachsensp.,  iii,  115). 

^  Si  maritus  uxorem  suam  occiderit  immerentem,  componat 
solidos  mille  ducentos  parentibus  qui  earn  ad  maritum  dederint. 
(Rothar.,  203.) 

*  Grimm,  D.  Alt.,  p.  422. 

*  .  .  .  reddat  earn  et  cum  quadraginta  solidis  earn  componat. 
(Z.  Alem.,  tit.  54.) 

^  Uxorem  ducturus  ccc.  sol.  det  parentibus  ejus.  (Z.  Sax.,  tit.  vi.) 
Qui  viduam  ducere  velit,  offerat  tutori  pretium  emptionis  ejus.  (Z. 
Sax.,  7,  3.) 

'  Si  inter  sponsum  et  sponsae  parentes  .  .  .  dato  pretio,  etc. 
(Z.  Visig.,  II  I,  452.)  Si  pater  de  filiae  nuptiis  definierit,  et  de  pretio 
convenerit,  etc.    Ubid,  iii,  i,  3.) 


122  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

gebycge,  etc."  "  If  a  man  buy  a  wife  and  the  marriage 
take  not  place,  let  him  give  the  money  and  compensate, 
and  make  bot  (compensation)  to  his  surety."  ^ 

An  ancient  historian  speaks  of  marriage  as  being  firmer 
if  purchase-money  had  been  paid.^  The  ancient  Germans 
could  sell  wives  as  an  insult  or  a  punishment ;  the  Ice- 
landers had  this  power  ;  the  Frisians  are  related  to  have 
sold  their  wives  and  children  to  pay  their  taxes  to  the 
Romans.  The  Saxons,  as  we  have  seen,  could  buy  a  wife, 
but  wej-e  not  permitted  to  sell  her.  The  Langobards  gave 
away  a  wife,  sometimes  to  an  unfree  person,  probably  as  a 
punishment. 

Aethelbert  speaks  also  of  buying  a  wife  ;  ^  the  price  was 
called  a  ccap,  sceatt,  gyft.  This  king  also  commands  that 
if  a  free  man  breaks  the  marriage  tie  with  a  free  married 
woman,  he  shall  buy  another  woman  and  bring  her  to  the 
injured  husband.*  And,  again,  "  If  a  free  man  take  away 
a  free  man's  wife,  let  him  pay  for  it  with  his  wergeld,  and 
provide  another  wife  with  his  own  money  and  bring  her 
to  the  other."^ 

By  the  laws  of  the  Alemanns,  he  who  marries  the  wife  of 
another  shall  pay  forty  solidi  to  the  injured  husband,  and 
restore  the  woman.  If  he  keep  the  wife  with  the  consent 
of  the  husband,  he  will  pay  400  solidi — her  full  value  ; 
if  she  die  before  the  husband  has  reclaimed  her,  he  will 
also  pay  400  solidi.  The  children  born  before  the  pay- 
ment of  her  value,  will  belong  to  the  first  husband  ;  if  one 

'  Leg.  IncB,  31. 

2  Tutiorem  matrimonii  fidem  censebat  quod  pretio  firmaretur.  {SaXt 
Gramvi.,  lib.  v.  p.  88.) 

3  Leg.  Aeth.,  76,  82. 

■*  Idem,  32.  Si  liber  homo  cum  hominis  liberi  uxore  concubuerit 
ejus  capitale  redimat,  et  aliam  uxorem  propria  pecunia  mercex^r, 
et  illi  alteri  adducat. 

*  Idem,  31. 


BUYING  A    WIFE.  123 

of  them  should  die,  the  second  husband  mi  st  pay  wergeld 
or  compensation  -^  that  is,  the  wife  and  all  that  belong 
to  her,  are  regarded  as  the  property  of  him  who  bought 
her. 

In  the  old  Welsh  laws,  compiled  11 80  A.D.  and  be- 
longing to  a  much  older  period,  we  find  the  three  stages 
of  endowment  of  the  wife  existing  together — the  avwbyr 
or  purchase-money  paid  to  the  father  by  the  husband,  the 
coivyll  or  morgengabe,  given  by  the  husband  to  the  wife 
on  the  morning  after  marriage,  and  the  agivaddi  or  dower 
given  by  the  father  to  the  husband.-  All  the  ancient 
Welsh  laws  give  the  wife  half  the  property  if  she  be  seven 
years  married  and  separated  without  fault  of  her  own. 

Scandinavian  Cnstojiis. — The  most  ancient  German  cus- 
toms are  those  of  the  Scandinavian  races.  They  are 
stamped  with  a  singular  respect  for  woman  ;  and  yet  in 
some  directions  she  was  especially  under  subjection. 

Their  oldest  laws  punished  the  murder  of  a  humble 
m.aiden  more  than  that  of  a  chief  The  weaker  sex  was 
protected  in  innumerable  ways  ;  and  even  as  late  as  the 
1 2th  century,  a  simple  kiss  forced  upon  a  maiden  was 
punished  with  fine  or  exile  ;  and  in  the  15th  century, 
a  law  of  Copenhagen  orders  the  adulterous  woman  to  be 
buried  alive,  and  the  guilty  partner  to  be  decapitated. 

The  Scandinavian  woman  carried  arms  by  a  champion, 
and  pleaded  or  sat  in  justice  through  a  representative.  She 
was  excluded  from  judicial  debates  but  could  act  alone 
in  small  matters.  At  times,  she  had  the  right  to  choose 
her  own  guardian  ;  if  her  tutor  abused  his  rights  she  could 
bring  an  action.  She  had  personality — property  which 
she  could  call  her  own.  If  a  elative  was  killed,  she  took 
a  portion  of  the  inheritance,  or  received  the  blood-money, 

'  Lex.  Alem.,  51,  1,2. 

'  Ancient  Laws  of  IVaUs,  Dimetian  Code,  p.  223, 


124  GESTA    CHRIS  TI. 

though  a  less  share  than  the  males.  The  price  paid  to  hef 
natural  guardian  was  gradually  changed  here,  as  every- 
where among  the  German  tribes,  under  the  influence  of 
Christianity,  into  a  dower,  which  was  increased  by  gifts 
from  her  own  family.  She  received  not  alone  arms  and 
horses,  but  land  and  houses  ;  so  that  her  independence 
might  be  guaranteed.  Reciprocal  fidelity  was  demanded 
from  her  and  her  husband ;  if  he  abandoned  or  ill-treated 
her,  he  could  be  punished  by  the  relatives,  and  wcrgeld 
demanded  of  him.  Her  dower  could  be  secured  by  a 
kind  of  separation  of  goods.  Partnership  in  property  was 
permitted  in  Iceland  between  husband  and  wife,  but  the 
husband  usually  had  the  power  of  management.  At  the 
husband's  death,  the  widow  succeeded  to  a  portion  of  his 
power  ;  she  could  dispose  of  the  hand  of  her  daughter,  and 
be  guardian  of  the  minor  children  ;  she  was  in  fact  tutor, 
except  that  she  must  call  in  her  near  relatives  for  assistance. 
She  could  perform  no  acts  in  law,  for  in  these  arms  are 
necessary,  but  she  could  direct  her  champion  ;  she  was  not 
the  legal  guardian  of  her  children,  but  must  be  consulted 
by  the  "tutor";  she  did  not  fight,  but  encouraged  the  war- 
riors ;  she  did  not  sacrifice,  but  interpreted  and  revealed 
the  oracles.^ 

In  Norway,  the  woman  was  always  in  minority,  but, 
under  certain  conditions,  was  allowed  a  free  administra- 
tion of  her  property.  In  Sweden  and  Denmark,  she  was 
more  like  a  minor  and  the  tutor  represented  her  more 
generally ;  he  could  dispose  of  her  hand,  but  she  could 
refuse,  and,  if  he  neglected  his  duty,  choose  a  husband 
for  herself. 

Marriage  in  Scandinavia  could  take  place  without  clergy, 
but  divorce  required  a  religious  rite. 

The  wife  could  demand  this,   if  the    husband   wasted 

'  GicU. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  LAW.  125 

their  common  property.  The  husband  was  absolute 
master  of  the  property  of  the  wife,  ^  even  of  her  dower, 
but  if  they  were  separated,  he  must  restore  all  that  be- 
longed to  her,  and  from  one-third  to  one-half  of  their 
common  acquisitions.  Her  natural  tutors  could  always 
act  against  him  in  law.  She  had  few  separate  rights, 
and  could  contract  but  few  debts  without  his  authority. 
It  may  be  said  in  general  that  the  oldest  and  most 
characteristic  German  customs — the  Scandinavian — placed 
woman  more  under  subjection  than  do  those  of  the  tribes 
brought  under  Roman  and  Keltic  influences.  This  pecu- 
liarity has  affected  all  modern  legislation  in  the  Scandi- 
navian countries. 

Marriage  under  German  Cnstojns. — A  wife  under  the 
old  German  law  was  in  the  power  of  the  husband  in  all 
acts  of  domestic  life,  and  in  civil  life  she  could  only  act 
through  him.  She  entered  with  all  her  property  under  his 
Mund  or  guardianship,  but  he  could  not  dispose  alone  of 
her  estate.  In  acts  of  sale,  he  appears  as  her  guardian, 
not  master.  At  his  death,  she  received  a  certain  portion 
of  their  common  acquisitions,  one-third  in  some  tribes  and 
one-half  in  others.  There  was  as  yet  no  partnership,  and 
she  transmitted  no  right  in  the  common  property  to  her 
heirs.  The  husband  could  dispose  of  their  common  goods; 
he  alone  had  the  right  to  sell.  The  wife's  property  con- 
sisted, first  of  the  price  of  purchase,  which  gradually  became 
changed  under  the  higher  views  of  marriage  taught  by 
the  new  Faith,  into  the  dower,  and  was  finally  paid  by 
the  father  ;  secondly,  of   the  "  morning-gift ;"  thirdly,  of 

^  In  case  of  there  being  no  children,  it  was  not  considered  just  fo? 
the  husband  to  alienate  the  property  of  the  wife,  but  when  it  was  done, 
the  action  must  stand  in  law.  Nulla  prole  suscitata  vel  superstite, 
alienare  non  debet  prcedium  uxoris  niaiitus  ;  si  tameu  alienaverit, 
stabit  aUenatio.     {JLex  Scauice  Simon,  p.  97.) 


<26  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

her  private  possessions,  and  finally  of  a  certain  portion 
of  the  common  gains.  During  marriage,  the  husband 
managed  the  dower  ;  if  he  died  first,  it  returned  to  the 
widow  and  her  children,  the  principal  belonging  to  the 
latter.  If  the  wife  died  first  without  children,  the  dower 
fell  to  tiie  husband. 

The  Sachsenspiegel,  a  German  code  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  says  of  the  wife,  that  "  she  must  live  after  the 
will  of  the  husband,  and  be  subject  and  obedient,  for  she 
is  not  competent  of  herself  without  her  husband,  whether 
to  do  or  to  leave  undone."^ 

Girls  were  often  excluded  from  the  inheritance  of  land, 
under  the  necessities  of  a  warlike  time."  The  position  of 
woman  was  made  secondary,  and  the  rights  of  succession 
were  restrained,  so  that  she  could  not  bring  too  great 
estates  to  her  husband  and  thus  break  up  a  family  pro- 
perty. 

Approaches  to  partnership  in  property  in  marriage, 
and  equality  of  rights  of  the  sexes,  have  been  the  slow 
gains  won  by  the  Christian  spirit  in  Europe.  Even  in 
the  seventh  century,  the  customary  wills,  bequeathing 
property,  begin  to  show  the  Christian  influence,  equalizing 
the  sexes.  One  of  Marculfus'  forms  speaks  of  "the  long- 
continued  but  impious  custom  "  of  providing  differently 
for  the  sister  from  the  brother,  and  divides  the  estate 
equally  between  the  sons  and  daughters.^ 

'  Und  sie  sol  nach  seinem  willen  leben,  und  unterthenig  und  gehor- 
sam  sein,  denn  sie  ist  ihies  selbes  nicht  gewaltig,  one  ihren  man,  weder 
zu  thun  noch  zu  lassen.  {Sachs.,  i,  97.) 

^  Glanville  seems  to  assert  in  regard  to  the  old  English  law,  that 
no  female  could  share  in  any  inheritance  with  males.  Mulier  nun- 
quam  cum  masculo  partem  capit  in  hereditate  aliqua.    {Glen.,  v.  i.) 

^  Diuturna  sed  impia  inter  nos  consuetudo  tenetur,  ut  terra  paterna 
sorores  cum  fratribus  portionem  non  habeant.  Sed  ego  .  .  .  sicut 
mihi  equaliter  a  Deo  donati  eslis  lilio.      {Marc,  Form,,  1.  11,  p.  177.) 


FREE  MARRIAGE.  ivf 

Under  the  German  customs,  all  sins  and  errois  o{  the 
wife  are  severely  punished.  The  husband  can  be  faithless 
without  redress.  He  can  send  her  away,  provided  he 
give  her  a  dower  as  large  as  the  original  one,  and  pay  a 
fine  to  the  king  ;  he  may  abandon  his  home,  provided  he 
take  nothing  with  him.  If  she  leave  him  without  good 
reasons,  she  may  be  suffocated  in  a  ditch  (necetur  in  luteo). 

It  is  obvious  that  the  position  of  woman  under  all  the 
Teutonic  tribes  bore  a  stamp  of  barbarism.  Something 
of  that  barbarism  has  descended  in  the  English  common 
law ;  though  here  the  ascetic  principles  of  the  Canon  law 
have  aided  in  making  her  legal  position  as  wife,  inferior. 
The  influence  of  the  Christian  idea  as  distinguished  from 
asceticism  of  the  Church,  on  the  one  side,  or  from  the 
coarseness  of  German  custom  and  law  on  the  other,  has 
been  continually  to  make  her,  in  all  personal  rights,  the 
equal  of  man,  and  his  superior  in  the  moral  field. 

Free  Marriage. — As  the  Roman  institutions  were 
transplanted  to  Gaul,  "free  marriage"  (terminated  at  will) 
was  especially  adopted.  Even  Christianity  did  not  for 
a  time  change  it.  The  consent  of  relatives  and  friends 
was  desirable,  but  not  necessary.  Marriage  was  held  good 
without  religious  ceremonial  or  dower.  The  various  laws 
of  the  Christian  emperors  only  demanded  the  consent  of 
the  spouses  and  the  testimony  of  friends.  Divorce  was 
comparatively  easy,  and  among  some  of  the  tribes,  was 
possible  under  mutual  consent.  Legal  concubinage — a 
very  different  relation  from  "  free  marriage  " — was  almost 
universal,  and  even  at  times  winked  at  by  the  Church.' 
Justinian  regarded  it  as  lawful,  and  it  endured  till  the 
thirteenth  century. 

The  new  Faith  of  course  acted  directly  against  these 
evils,  and  everywhere — when  allowed  its  natural  power — 
*  Dec.  Cone.  Toledo  (589  A.D.).    {Ic.  xvii.) 


128  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

tended  to  abolish  free  marriage,  unlimited  divorce  and 
concubinage.  Even  the  Church,  in  the  matter  of  divorce, 
was  true  to  the  teachings  of  the  Master.  The  Council  of 
Aries  (314  A.D.)  endeavoured  to  recall  the  Gallo-Romans 
to  the  respect  of  marriage,  and  warns  those  husbands  who 
had  surprised  their  wives  in  criminal  practices,  to  take  no 
others  to  wife, — a  direction  more  strict  than  the  apparent 
teachings  of  Christ.  Another  Council  (365)  excommuni- 
cated those  husbands  who  abandoned  their  wives  without 
proof  of  crime,  and  contracted  new  marriages  ;  others  were 
excommunicated  who  repudiated  their  spouses  before  the 
matter  had  been  brought  to  the  bishop  for  judgment. 

The  law  of  Aethelred^  is  striking.  "And  we  direct 
very  earnestly  that  every  Christian  man  carefully  avoid 
unlawful  concubinage  and  rightly  observe  Christian  law  ; 
and  let  it  never  be  that  a  Christian  man  marry  within 
the  fourth  degree  nor  have  more  wives  than  one  as  long 
as  she  may  live.  Whoever  will  rightly  observe  God's 
law  and  secure  his  soul  from  the  burnings  of  hell." 
The  Pepin  Capitulary,  addressed  (744)  to  the  Council  of 
Soissons,  declares  that  "  during  the  life  of  the  husband, 
no  other  ought  to  marry  his  wife,"  etc.,  and  that  the 
husband  is  not  permitted  to  repudiate  his  wife  except  for 
the  cause  of  fornication.^  The  Capitularies  of  Charlemagne 
(789  A.D.)  are  strongly  for  the  indissolubility  of  marriage. 
In  one  he  declares  that  nothing  can  break  a  Christian 
marriage,^  and  calls  another  union  adultery. 

The  growing  love  and  worship  for  the  mother  of  Jesus, 
no  doubt  strengthened  and  intensified  this  respect  for 
woman,  now  increasing  in  Europe. 

^  Lex.  Ethel.,  v.  ri,  vi.  11. 

'  Maritus  non  debet  mulierem  suam  dimittere,  excepto  causa  forni- 
cationis  deprehensa.     {BaL,  i,  159.) 

•  Nequaquani  posse  ulla  occasione  separari. 


THE  STRUGGLE  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  129 

The  Church,  too,  set  itself  vigorously  to  root  out  the  old 
venal  character  of  marriage.  The  Council  of  Treves  (1227) 
forbade  the  relatives  of  the  bridal  pair  from  taking  money 
under  any  pretence  for  the  giving  the  woman  in  marriage.^ 
The  maternal  power  introduced  into,  or  strengthened  in 
ancient  legislation  by  Christianity,  was  gradually  developed 
until  it  finally  reached  almost  the  level  of  the  paternal 
power. 

The  low  idea  of  marriage,  shown  especially  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  laws,  was  elevated  step  by  step.  Under  the 
Burgundians,  two-thirds  of  the  purchase  money  of  the  bride 
went  to  the  father  and  one-third  to  the  woman,  showing 
that  the  archaic  idea  of  sale  still  survived,  This  soon 
became  only  the  purchase  of  the  woman's  tutelage,  and 
later,  under  the  higher  influences,  a  mode  of  securing  the 
independence  and  safety  of  the  wife.  The  AIorgeiig-ab& 
was  gradually  merged  in  the  dower,  and  at  length  under 
the  new  refinement,  dropped  out  of  use.  All  the  various 
forms  of  protecting  or  adding  to  the  wife's  property  ; — the 
purchase  money,  the  morning  gift,  the  Norman  doiiaire,  the 
"  thirds  "  or  "  half  "  of  the  different  tribes,  the  dos  ad  ostium 
ecdesi(2,  all  have  formed  the  modern  "dower."  The  ring  is 
the  only  relic  of  the  ancient  ived,  or  pledge,  that  the  man 
would  fulfil  his  part  of  the  money  contract.  Even  as  early 
as  King  Edmund  (940-946  A.D.),  the  influence  of  the  new 
Faith  was  felt  in  elevating  the  idea  of  the  wed  or  pledge. 
It  was  then  recognised  as  a  promise  that  "  the  husband  will 
keep  the  wife  according  to  God's  law,  as  a  husband  should 
his  wife."  Still  a  wed  is  paid  at  the  same  time  to  the 
father  for  the  tutelage  (foster-lean)  of  his  daughter  ;  and 
the  husband's  authority  is  described  as  that  of  a  baron  over 
his  vassal  ;  she  is  said  to  "  choose  his  will."     Even  then, 

'^  .  .  .  quocunque  colore  qu^esito  aliquam  pecuniam  pro  matri- 
monia  contrahenda,  etc 


130  GESTA    CHRIS TI. 

on  agreement,  she  was  entitled  to  half  the  common  pro- 
perty if  they  had  children,  and  she  did  not  choose  another 
husband  on  sepa^'ation.^ 

In  the  time  of  Henry  I.  (1070  A.D.)  the  widow  was 
entitled  to  her  dowry  (when  delivered  to  her  before 
witnesses),  and  her  "  marriage  gift,"  and  one-third  of  their 
common  earnings,  as  well  as  her  clothing  and  furniture. 
If  she  died  without  children,  her  relatives  divided  her  share 
with  her  husband.^ 

The  Church  laboured  unceasingly  to  confirm  the  dower. 
Many  canons  made  marriage  illegal  unless  the  v/oman  were 
thus  protected.^  And  even  as  early  as  King  Canute,  the 
Christian  spirit  seems  to  have  influenced  legislation  against 
selling  a  woman  in  marriage.* 

Sir  Thomas  Smith  states  that  even  as  late  as  his  time 
(1570),  gold  and  silver  were  laid  upon  the  "  church  book  " 
at  the  door  of  the  church  by  the  husband  when  the  father 
or  next  of  kin  gave  the  bride  up,  "  as  though  he  did  buy 
her."  ^ 

The  laws  of  the  Germanic  and  Scandinavian  nations 
show  everyv/here  the  effect  of  Christian  influence  in  modi- 
fying the  old  license  of  divorce.  The  West-Gothic  later 
laws  permitted  divorce  only  for  adultery,  though  earlier 
customs  allowed  it  by  mutual  consent. 

"  Tutelage,"  at  first  a  domestic  right  in  the  interest  of 
the  tutor,  became  by  degrees,  under  Christianity  a  public 
charge  in  the  interest  of  the  ward.     In  the  time  of  Clovis, 

*  Leg.  Edmund.     Thorpe,  p.  255. 

*  L.  H.  Prim.,  Ixx.  22. 

*  Dubium  non  est  earn  mulierem  non  pertinere  ad  matrimonium 
.  .  .  nisi  ilia  mulier  .  .  .  et  dotata  legitime  .  .  .  videatur 
Cont.  ap.  Tus. 

•*  .^nd  let  no  one  compel  either  woman  or  man  to  hinj  whom  sha 
herself  mislikes,  nor  for  money  sell  her,  etc.     (Z,.  oj  King  Canute,  "J^.) 

*  TUe  Commonwealth  of  Etigland,  p.  124. 


TUTELAGE  OF  WOMAN.  131 

the  Mtmd  of  the  woman  belonged  to  her  family  ;  of 
Charlemagne,  to  the  State.  The  king  became  gradually 
the  protector  of  the  weak,  according  to  the  words  of  the 
Holy  Book,  which  entitle  him  the  "  Father  of  orphans  and 
refuge  of  widows."  At  his  crowning,  he  took  the  oath  to  be 
the  "  guardian  of  widows  and  orphans "  {tutor  viduarum, 
et  orpJianorum)  and  promised  officially  to  be  the  "especial 
defender  of  widows  and  wards  "  (viduis  et  piipillis  maximus 
defensor). 

"Let  our  envoys,"  says  Charlemagne,  "enquire  into  the 
condition  of  all  widows  and  persons  incapable  of  legal 
action  ;  let  them  watch  that  they  be  provided  with  skilful 
tutors  and  friends  of  justice  ;  if  there  be  any  bad  tutors, 
let  them  replace  them,  because,  next  to  the  Lord  and  the 
saints,  the  emperor  is  constituted  to  be  the  protector  and 
defender  of  such."  ^ 

Whoever  injured  the  widow,  was  held  to  have  violated 
the  "  Peace  of  the  king."  A  special  jurisdicLion  was 
constituted  in  her  behalf ;  justice  was  made  easy  for  her, 
and  her  complaints  were  always  listened  to.  Woman  was 
not  yet  made  equal  to  man  under  the  law,  but  was  at  least 
protected. 

From  the  king,  whenever  his  authority  became  weakened, 
the  tutelage  passed  to  the  feudal  baron.  At  first,  the 
woman  could  not  inherit  land,  but  later  she  held  it 
under  the  tutelage  of  the  seigneur  who  represented  her  in 
law.  Subsequently  she  was  permitted  the  right  of  choosing 
her  guardian,  and  the  seigneur  sold  his  right  of  tutelage. 
The  tutor  acted  for  her  in  all  things.  He  could  choose  her 
'"champion"  {advocates),  and  in  this  way  gained  the  right 
of  choosing  her  husband.  Her  hand  thus  became  venal. 
Both  widow  and  daughter  were  sold  in  marriage,  for  they 

*  Quia  ipse  Dominus  Imperator,  post  Domini  et  sanctorum  ejus, 
quorum  et  protector  et  defensor  constitutus  est.     (Cap.  i,  8.) 


132  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

became  of  importance  to  any  baron,  as  controlling  one  oi 
more  men-at-arms  with  their  estates.  The  baron  had  also 
an  equal  right  in  France  over  the  marriage  and  landed 
property  of  the  serf  (or  mainmortable).  During  the  early 
part  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  daughter  of  the  serf  did  not 
succeed  to  the  land  of  her  parents.  Through  these  rights 
of  the  master,  arose  the  extraordinary  and  brutal  "  droit  de 
seigneur."  ^ 

Under  the  softening  influences  of  the  new  Faith,  all 
these  "  rights  "  were  gradually  modified.  The  right  of 
the  seigneur  over  the  hand  of  his  ward  was  first  attacked, 
and  he  was  not  permitted  to  affix  a  high  price  to  his 
consent ;  at  length  the  right  of  tutor  came  to  apply  only 
to  the  fief  and  not  to  the  patrimony  ;  so  there  became 
two  tutors,  the  seigneur  and  the  natural  guardian,  and  the 
right  of  tutelage  was  bought  and  sold.  As  mercenaries 
took  the  place  of  vassals  in  the  service  of  the  king,  the 
fiefs  became  simple  patrimonies,  and  the  two  sexes  equal. 
The  woman  owning  a  fief  soon  exercised  all  the  rights 
of  sovereignty  ;  she  became  guardian,  dispensed  justice, 
signed  treaties,  and  performed  all  the  public  legal  acts  of 
the  man.2 

France  was  the  first  to  abolish  tutelage  ;  charters  in 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  omit  any  mention  of  it. 
Outside  of  marriage  was  complete  emancipation  ;  inside, 
the  old  incapacities.  After  the  fall  of  feudalism,  no 
guardian — at  least  in  the  cities — was  appointed  for  a  girl 
no  longer  a  minor,  or  for  a  widow ;  she  had  access  to  all 

*  See  on  this  curious  subject,  Delpit,  Siir  le  droit  du  Seigneur, 
Delisle,  Etudes  siir  la  co>idilio7t  de  la  classe  agric.  en  Normandie,  and 
other  works  on  Jus  prinKe  noctis.  Also  Du  Cange,  on  Mercheta 
and  Cullage. 

^  Gid!;.  I  desire  to  express  especial  obligations  to  this  most  clear 
and  thorough  writer  on  this  topic. 


GAINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  133 

courts  ;  could  plead  and  was  represented  in  judicial  duels 
by  champions  selected  by  herself.  The  incapacities  of  the 
Roman  law  disappear  ;  she  can  give  bail,  appear  in  courts, 
be  arbitrator  and  render  testimony  in  civil  or  criminal 
cases.  Her  incapacity  begins  with  marriage,  and  is  de- 
rived from  the  German  mimdium  or  tutelage.  The 
husband  can  beat  his  wife,  though  not  to  death,  and 
chastise  her  reasonably.^  The  husband  is  responsible  for 
his  wife's  offences  and  has  the  right  to  administer  her 
property  ;  all  their  goods  and  effects  are  common. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  throughout  Europe  the 
influence  of  Christianity  tended  to  purify  law  of  the  gross 
German  prejudice,  that  bodily  strength  was  a  condition  of 
civil  capacity,  and  that  woman  was  an  inferior  being — 
an  impression  from  which  even  the  Stoical  jurists  were  not 
free.  The  sex  unable  to  bear  arms  was  gradually  freed 
from  disability  and  received  an  equal  part  in  the  suc- 
cession of  property,  while  in  marriage  the  wife  retained 
ttie  administration  of  her  property,  and  gradually  acquired 
almost  full  legal  equality  with  the  husband. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood,  however,  that  in  this  matter 
the  Church  corresponded  to  the  Spirit  of  the  Master's 
teachings.  The  Canon  law  was  a  reaction  from  pagan 
licentiousness,  and  too  much  narrowed  the  field  of  woman's 
activity,  holding  her  in  too  close  subjection,  and  has  thus 
been  adverse  to  modern  progress. 

In  the  north  of  Europe  the  old  German  tutelage  of 
woman  continued  the  latest ;  in  the  south,  other  incapa- 
cities from  Roman  law  survived.  In  every  part  of  Europe, 
there  was  a  preference  for  male  heirs  for  many  centuries. 
In  France,  it  was    179 1   before  all  children  were  assured 


*  .    .    .    battre  sa  femme,  sans  mort  et  sans  mehaing,  et  la  castid 
resonablement.     (Ord.  XII.) 


134  GESTA   CHRIST!, 

equal  rights  in  the  family.     The  Code  Napoleon  abolished 

all  legal  distinctions  of  sex. 

In  Scandinavia,  it  is  only  in  this  century  that  the  legal 
disabilities  of  woman  have  been  dimi/iished,  and  in  some 
directions  entirely  removed  ;  and  in  this  century  also, 
woman  may  be  said  to  have  been  legally  emancipated  in 
Germany.^ 

In  England  the  old  inferiority  of  woman  in  marriage — 
an  effect  of  German  tutelage — was  retained  longer  than 
in  France,  which  came  more  under  the  Roman  law.  The 
canonists,  who  held  the  ascetic  idea  of  marriage  as  an 
impurity,  and  of  woman  as  an  inferior  creature,  and  a 
source  of  endless  temptations  to  man,  were  only  too  re- 
joiced to  place  the  wife  under  strict  subjection  and  to 
almost  absorb  her  personality  in  her  husband's. 

The  religious  influence,  promoting  entire  partnership  in 
property  and  interests,  seems  to  have  had  more  weight 
in  France  than  in  England 

Of  the  rigorous  English  common  law  Sir  Thomas  Smith 
says  (1571)  :  "And  although  our  Lavve  may  seeme  some- 
what rigorous  towards  the  wives,  yet  for  the  most  part 
they  can  handle  their  husbands  so  well  and  so  dulcly,  and 
specially  when  their  husbands  be  sicke,  that  where  the  law 
giveth  them  nothing,  their  husbands  at  their  death  of  their 
own  good  will  give  them  all."^  Glanville^  still  earlier 
(1181)  says  :  "It  should  be  understood  that  a  woman  can- 
not during  the  life  of  her  husband  make  any  disposition 
of  her  dower.  For  since  the  wife  herself  is  in  a  legal 
sense  under  the  absolute  power  of  her  husband,  it  is  not 

'  Tutelage  of  woman  was  only  abolished  in  Wiirtemberg  in  1828, 
in  Baden  in  1835,  and  in  Saxony  in  1838  ;  it  is  said  to  still  exist  la 
the  Ilaiiscatic  '  )vvns  and  a  portion  of  Hanover,      ^idd. 

^  Commowwealfh  0/ England,  p.  125. 

'  ClanviUe^  c.  iiL  p.  16  (Beames). 


THE  COMMON  LAW.  135 

singular  if  the  dower  as  well  as  the  woman  herseif  should 
be  considered  to  be  fully  at  the  disposal  of  her  husband 
elect."  He  adds,  that  the  husband  can  give,  sell,  or  alien- 
ate her  dower,  and  that  the  wife  has  no  redress,  even  if 
she  have  not  consented  to  this  disposition  of  her  property.'^ 
She  cannot  even  make  a  will  without  the  authority  of  her 
husband.^  The  same  author  testifies  to  the  influence  of 
the  Church  in  confirming  her  dowry,  "  for  every  man  is 
bound  as  well  by  the  ecclesiastical  law,  as  by  the  secular, 
to  endow  his  bride  at  the  time  of  his  being  affianced  to 
her."  3 

The  spiritual  courts  were  not  always  in  favour  of  the 
legal  subjection  of  woman.  Thus  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
III.  (1336-143 1,  A.D.)  they  held  that  wives  had  the  right 
to  make  wills,  and  that  efforts  to  prevent  them  were  in 
violation  of  the  usage  of  canon  law.  The  church-door 
dower  {ad  osthini  ccclesicE)  seems  to  have  mainly  passed 
away  in  the  seventeenth  century.* 

The  modern  idea  of  absolute  partnership  between  hus- 
band and  wife,  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  old  English  law. 

There  exists  still  a  form  of  contract,  made  in  the  time  of 
Edward  I.,  in  which  a  man  engaged  to  sell  and  deliver  his 
wife  to  another  man,^  and  a  historical  document  speaks  of 
a  "bought  wife  delivered  in  a  halter,"  as  late  as  1782.^ 

'  GlanviUe  (Beames),  p.  63.  '  Ibid. 

^  Ibid..,  p.  163.  It  is  clearly  not  the  canonists  who  put  the  wife's 
dower  and  property  so  absolutely  in  the  power  of  the  husband.  This 
feature  belongs  to  an  archaic  idea  among  the  Teutonic  tribes,  of  the 
subjection  of  the  weaker  sex. 

■•  See  that  quaint  book,  The  IVo/nan's  Lawyer,  p.  in. 

*  Noveritis  me  tradidisse  et  dimisse  spontanea  voluntate  mea,  Gul. 
Paynell  milite,  Margaretam  uxorem  meam,  etc.  (Quoted  from  Rot. 
Pari.,  vol.  i.  p.  146,  by  Pearson,  in  his  History  of  En  inland,  vol.  i.  p  601.) 

"  Anne,  daughter  of  Moses  Stebbing,  by  a  bought  wife,  delivered 
to  him  in  a  halter,  Sept.,  1782.  {Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  601,  from  Purleigh's 
Register^ 


136  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

Fleta^  defines  the  legal  status  of  woman  as  "under  the 
rod." 

The  conclusion  from  this  very  brief  resume  of  an  impor- 
tant topic,  may  fairly  be  that  the  modern  social  and  legal 
position  of  woman,  while  it  owes  much  to  ancient  German 
customs,  has  been  far  more  influenced  by  the  estimate  set 
upon  woman  and  marriage  by  the  Christian  doctrines. 

Christianity,  it  will  be  seen,  has  done  away  with  "  tute- 
lage," at  least  in  central  Europe ;  has  elevated  marriage 
from  the  idea  of  a  purchase  to  that  of  a  spiritual  and  bodily 
union  ;  it  has  protected  woman  by  everywhere  encouraging 
the  dower  ;  it  has  sought  to  make  her  in  its  own  fields  the 
equal  of  man  ;  and  through  its  influence,  more  than  any 
other,  has  "  the  proprietary  and  personal  independence  of 
woman  "  been  advanced  throughout  Europe  and  the  Chris- 
tian world.  This  has  been  one  of  the  most  important 
contributions  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  to  the  progress  of  the 
race ;  its  effects  are  to  be  felt  through  all  succeeding  ages. 

'  Quaedam  sub  virga  velut  uxores.    Fl.^  i,-,  c.  9. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PERSONAL  FEUDS  AND   PRIVATE  WAR. 

In  all  barbaric  society,  individual  injury  is  at  once  re- 
venged on  the  person  of  the  enemy,  and  the  injured,  being 
a  member  of  a  family,  is  protected  by  this  association,  and 
his  wrongs  are  held  as  wrongs  done  to  the  famil3%  So 
"  feuds "  [faidd)  arise,  which  are  so  large  a  part  of  the 
objects  of  legislation  of  the  early  Teutonic  and  Keltic 
races.  Wherever  lands  are  inherited,  there  goes  with  it 
the  inheritance  of  the  coat  of  mail  and  the  family  feud.^ 
Among  the  American  Indians,  it  is  well  known  that 
the  murder  of  a  single  member  by  one  of  another  tribe, 
entails  a  feud  against  all  of  that  tribe,  until  revenge 
is  satiated  by  another  murder.  The  same  thing  is  still 
true  of  the  Arabs,  who  carry  out  blood-feuds  to  an  ex- 
treme, and  whose  faith  has  not  softened  this  feature  of 
barbarism.  Philosophers  have  called  the  practice  the 
habit  of  "self-help,"  as  opposed  to  leaving  punishment 
with  government.  It  seems  rather  the  unbridling  of  re- 
vengeful passions,  and  belongs  to  a  low  state  of  human 
progress.  The  Teutonic  races,  however,  early  attempted 
to  restore  order  to  society  by  arranging  fixed  methods  of 
satisfying  enmities.     A  careful   and  elaborate  system    of 

*  Ad  quemcunque  hereditas  terrcC  pervenerit,  ad  ilium  vestis  bellica 
et  ultio  proximi  .  .  .  debet  pertinere.  {Leg.  Angl.  et  Wer.  Lex. 
Salic,  tit  J  3,  and  many  Anglo-Saxon  Laws.) 

»37 


<38  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

fines,  or  amends,  was  arranged,  first  no  doubt  paid  to  the 
sufferer  or  his  family  alone,  and  afterwards  to  the  prince 
or  king  also,  as  representing  the  injured  community.  Each 
member  and  portion  of  the  body  was  strictly  valued,  and 
every  possible  injury  estimated,  so  that  all  penal  and  re- 
pressive legislation  was  represented  by  scales  of  fines  and 
pecuniary  penalties.  A  favourite  Anglo-Saxon  proverb 
was :  "  Buy  a  spear  from  the  side,  or  bear  it !  "  (Biege 
spere  of  side  oder  here  !)  Capital  punishment  was  seldom 
employed,  as  the  tribe  could  not  spare  a  member,  and 
preferred  fines  to  death-penalties.  The  extreme  punish- 
ment with  the  early  Teutons  was  "  out-lawing,"  which 
not  only  banished  the  offender  from  the  society  of  his 
fellow-men  and  made  his  murder  an  act  of  justice,  but 
even  cast  out  his  body  from  honourable  burial.  The  first 
effort  of  the  new  Faith  on  the  barbaric  tribes  of  Europe, 
was  to  repress  feuds  by  encouraging  fines.  King  Alfred,  in 
tlie  introduction  of  his  laws,  speaks  of  the  ordaining  of  bot^ 
or  money-fines  to  repress  feuds,  by  the  legislative  assem- 
blies of  England,  as  a  special  effect  of  the  Christian  faith.^ 
The  codes  of  ever}^  tribe,  after  its  conversion  to  Christi- 
anity, are  filled  uith  rules  as  to  pecuniary  amends.  The 
two  sexes  and  different  ranks  of  life  are  carefully  estimated 
as  to  their  relative  values.  It  is  curious  that  by  the  laws 
of  the  Wisigoths,  the  compensation,  or  xvergeld  ("  man- 
money,"  or  "  blood-money ")  of  a  maiden  under  fifteen 
years  was  only  half  that  of  a  youth,  while  between  fifteer. 
and  twenty  years,  it  was  more  than  that  of  a  man  ;  between 
twenty  and  forty  it  was  less,  and  still  later,  yet  less.  This 
people  felt  among  the  first  the  influence  of  the  new  power 
in  the  world,  and  faida,  or  feud,  was  early  abolished,  and 
it  was  declared  that  the  author  of  the  crime  is  alone  re- 

'  See  Thorpe's  Coll.  and  the  chapter  of  this  woik,  on  "  A»ijlo  .Saxon 
Laws." 


FINES  FOR  CRIMES.  139 

sponsible,  and  no  persons,  whether  relatives,  or  neighbours, 
will  have  to  fear  any  calumnia  (offence).     (Lang.  C.  6,  8.) 

Among  the  Alemanns  and  Burgundians  faida  still 
existed,  though  restrained,  but  with  the  Langobards  it 
was  declared  that :  "  In  all  wounds  between  freemen,  we 
have  put  stronger  compositions  than  the  ancients,  that  nc 
recourse  be  had  to  feud  {faida),  and  it  be  replaced  by 
an  amiable  friendship."  ^  And,  "  He  who  for  a  wound  or 
a  blow  hath  received  fine  for  a  murdered  man,  and  taken 
care  not  to  exercise  faida,  yet  killeth  a  man  of  the  other 
pa.rty,  he  will  pay  to  the  relatives  double  the  fine."^  Feud 
is  raised,  or  ended,  usually  by  paying  a  certain  fine.  The 
steps  for  abolishing  feud  were  gradual ;  first  the  home  was 
protected,  and  whoever  killed  a  murderer  in  his  own  home, 
even  in  anger,  paid  a  fine  equal  to  the  legal  value  of  the 
person,  provided  he  were  slain  at  once.  But  if  he  were 
killed  after  consideration,  the  fine  was  increased  seven-fold. 
And  in  certain  cases,  all  the  offender's  goods  were  confis- 
cated, and  even  he  himself  was  put  to  death.  In  the  law 
of  the  Bc^varians,  different  parts  of  the  house  were  valued 
even  as  different  members  of  the  body,  and  suitable  fines 
fixed  on  their  violation.  Next,  certain  places  were  made 
sacred  from  feud,  such  as  public  places  like  the  mallum 
(or  legislative  hall),  the  market,  the  town,  and  various 
asylums,  and  most  of  all,  the  church.  Then  the  transit, 
or  journey  from  the  house  to  the  mallum,  the  town,  the 
market,  the  court,  or  the  church  was  protected.  From 
protection  in  space,  the  legislation  was  transferred  to  time. 
All  religious  days  were  sacred  from  feud,  such  as  Sundays, 
Festival  days,  the  Christmas-tide,  Good  Friday,  Ascension- 
day,  and  the  like.  The  power  of  the  king,  too,  imposed 
peace  on  certain  places,  such  as  royal  roads,  water-courses, 
and  forests.  Protection  was  extended  also  to  widows 
*  Le^.  Roth.,  74.  -  Ibid.,  6. 


f40  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

orphans,  the  poor,  and  pilgrims.  And  finally,  even  draw, 
ing  the  sword  in  presence  of  a  bishop,  or  dignitary  of  the 
Church  or  state,  was  punished  by  a  fine. 

Among  the  Salian  Francs,  we  find  a  decree  very  early 
(596  A.D.)  against  feuds.  Childebert  II.  limits  it  to  murder, 
and  declares  it  a  pagan  institution  which  had  destroyed 
many  families.  He  orders  that  unprovoked  murder  should 
be  punished  with  death,  and  should  not  be  redeemed  with 
fine,  "  because  it  is  but  just  that  he  who  has  known  how 
to  kill,  should  learn  how  to  die."^ 

The  Church  everywhere  sought  in  the  Middle  Ages  to 
encourage  the  settlement  of  contests  by  fines  rather  than 
fighting,  and  to  obtain  concord  by  arbitration  or  through 
judges  rather  than  by  litigation.  It  was  earnest  in  its 
endeavours  to  determine  facts,  not  by  duel,  but  by  wit- 
nesses.^ In  England,  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries, 
so  great  was  the  influence  of  Christian  principles,  war  itself 
was  for  a  period  regarded  as  antichristian,  and  a  confessor 
at  shrove-tide  would  refuse  absolution  to  a  man  at  feud, 
who  would  not  make  peace  with  his  enemy.^ 

A  precious  document  describes  to  us  the  early  influence 
of  Christianity  in  substituting  punishment  instead  of  fines 
for  murder.  Pravda^  is  the  name  of  the  ancient  Russian 
code,  first  collected  thirty-two  years  before  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  (988  A.D.).  From  this  we  learn  that  "King 
Wladimir  lived  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  murders  waxed 
greatly.  Then  spake  the  bishops  to  Wladimir,  '  Murders 
wax  greatly.     Why  dost  thou  not  punish  ?  '     He  answered, 

'  De  homicidiis,  vero  ita  jussimus  observare,  ut  quicumque  teme- 
rario,  ausu  alius  sine  causa  occidcrit,  vitai  pcriculum  feriatur.  Nam 
non  de  precio  redemptionis  se  redimat  aut  componat  ...  quia 
justum  est,  ut  qui  novit  occidere,  discat  monri. 

*  Reeves'  Hist,  of  English  Law  (i,  116). 
'  Pearson's  Hist,  of  England. 

*  Las  dlteste  Recht  der  Russen.     Ewers.     Hamburgh,  182& 


ANCIENT  RUSSIAN  LAW.  I41 

*  T  feared  injustice.'  But  they  replied,  'Thou  hast  been  set 
by  God,  for  the  punishment  of  the  wicked  and  for  grace 
to  the  good.  It  becometh  thee  to  punish  the  murderers  ; 
but  only  after  much  searching  out'  Then  Wladimir  re- 
jected the  wergeld  (fine)  and  punished  the  murderers," 

This  ancient  chronicle  shows  remarkably  the  change 
which  must  have  passed  through  every  barbaric  tribe  after 
the  new  power  began  to  work.  First  the  bitter  and 
deadly  feud  under  the  reign  of  private  revenge  ;  then 
blood-money  paid  to  the  person  injured  or  to  his  relatives  ; 
then  a  fine  paid  to  the  prince  by  one  who  had  no  family, 
and  afterwards  by  any  ofiender,  as  a  surety  of  peace  and 
to  atone  for  injury  done  to  the  community.  The  first 
effect  of  the  new  Faith  is  a  fresh  sanctity  given  to  human 
life.  Wladimir  feared  to  execute  murderers,  lest  he  should 
do  wrong  by  taking  life.  But  the  new  view  of  justice  and 
of  punishment  which  also  came  from  this  Faith,  taught 
him  that  he  must  repress  evil-doers  even  at  the  sacrifice  of 
life.  The  fines  which  were  once  a  safeguard  of  order,  now 
became  a  composition  with  guilt.  Capital  punishment 
here  was  an  offspring  of  the  spirit  of  true  humanity. 

Thus  one  of  the  great  movements  in  human  progress, 
the  substitution  of  law  and  legal  penalty  for  private 
revenge,  was  especially  aided  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
by  Christianity. 

It  is  true  that  society  everywhere  tends,  under  Divine 
influences  and  the  instincts  and  sympathies  of  human 
nature,  towards  this  improvement.  Yet  imperfect  faiths 
and  other  causes  retaid  the  drift.  Christianity  has  no 
purer  page  in  its  record,  than  the  history  of  its  efforts  to 
abolish  feuds  and  blood-revenge,  and  to  draw  men  under 
law  and  government  ;  thus  beginning  that  great  work  of 
bringing  Peace  to  the  earth,  which  after  many  ages  it  shall 
certainly  consummate. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PRIVATE  WAR  AND   PEACE  OF  GOD. — ARBITRATION. 

One  of  the  especial  curses  of  the  Middle  Ages — a  natural 
accompaniment  of  feudalism — was  the  practice  of  waging 
"  private  war."  This  was  a  privilege  allowed  in  many 
countries  only  to  gentlemen,  but  in  Germany,  the  custom 
prevailed  through  all  classes.  Every  one  who  thought  him- 
self wronged,  had  the  right  to  send  a  formal  declaration  of 
war  to  his  enemy.  The  forms  were  fixed,  a  special  code 
existed  for  it  ;  the  messenger  or  ambassador  must  convey 
the  challenge  on  the  same  day  with  the  offence ;  the 
challenger  and  his  messenger  must  give  proof  by  oath  of 
having  gone  through  the  necessary  forms.  If  the  ambas- 
sador happened  to  die,  the  author  of  the  war  must  prove 
by  two  compurgators  that  the  challenge  was  given.  If 
the  messenger  was  injured  by  the  one  challenged,  he  was 
dishonoured,  and  the  other  was  not  obliged  to  observe  the 
forms  and  delays  of  war.  The  challenge  must  proclaim 
openly  that  the  one  desired  to  be  the  enemy  of  the  other, 
and  declared  war  ;  as  thus  (in  145 1)  "  Know,  Imperial  cities 
of  Ulm  and  Esslingen,  that  I,  Claude,  Duke  Von  Salz, 
etc.,  etc.,  do  declare  and  desire  to  be  your  enemies  on 
account  of  Henry  etc.,  etc.  !  And  he  who  would  deliver 
himself  to  acts  of  enmity  before  the  time,  let  him  be 
considered  brigand,    incendiary,  and   murderer  ;   and    w<s 

14a 


PRIVATE   WAR.  143 

desire  by  this  note,  sealed  by  our  arms,  addressed  to  you 
publicly,  to  preserve  our  honour."  ^ 

In  France,  the  author  of  the  war  could  call  upon  those 
owing  him  assistance,  and  upon  his  relations  up  to  the 
seventh  degree.  If  they  refused  help,  they  lost  all  the 
advantage  of  relationship.  Two  brothers  of  the  same 
father  and  mother  were  not  permitted  to  wage  war  with 
one  another  ;  two  "  uterine  brothers "  were  allowed  the 
privilege.  Holy  clerks,  monks,  women  and  children  were 
not  bound  to  join  in  these  personal  wars.  The  towns  often 
had  the  privilege  of  war  granted  them  in  their  charters. 

Among  the  instances  of  private  war  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
it  is  related  that  in  the  fifteenth  century,  a  cook  of  Eppen- 
stein, — a  sheep  of  his  having  been  killed  by  Count  Von 
Solms,  and  the  value  not  being  paid — sent,  with  the  scul- 
lions, a  formal  challenge  of  war  to  the  nobleman.  In  1501, 
a  ruined  merchant  of  Nuremberg  is  said  to  have  been 
imprisoned  for  debt.  He  escaped  and  demanded  from 
the  city  a  heavy  sum  as  indemnity  for  his  unjust  imprison- 
ment. The  town  refused  his  demand  ;  whereupon  he  sent 
a  challenge  of  war,  seized  one  of  the  wealthy  citizens  who 
had  gone  to  visit  his  estates  in  the  country,  refusing  to 
ransom  him  for  less  than  3,500  florins,  and  forming  an 
alliance  with  some  barons,  plundered  and  annoyed  the  city 
till  the  inhabitants  were  obliged  to  yield. 

In  another  case,  a  nobleman  declared  war  against  the  city 
of  Frankfort,  because  a  lady  residing  there  had  promised 
a  dance  with  his  cousin  and  had  danced  with  another.  The 
city  was  obliged  to  satisfy  the  wounded  honour  of  the 
gentleman.  Even  as  late  as  1450,  there  was  a  challenge 
from  the  baker  and  domestics  of  the  Margrave  of  Baden 
to  seven  Imperial  cities  ;  and  in  1462,  a  baker  of  the  Count 
Palatine  defied  three  cities;  and  in  147 1,  the  shoe-blacks 
'  Wachter,  Beitrdge,  etc.     Deauinancir, 


144  CESTA   CHRIST!. 

of  the  Leipsic  University  formally  challenged  the  Provost 
of  the  city. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  Germany  was  described  by  a 
Roman  Cardinal  "  as  one  grand  robbery  "  and  that  noble- 
man as  most  famous  who  plundered  most.^ 

The  Margrave  of  Brandenburg  boasted  that  he  had 
burned  170  villages  ;  everywhere  were  the  desolation  of 
farms  and  the  obstruction  of  commerce.  The  peasants 
and  humble  cultivators  of  the  ground  suffered  most  from 
this  anarchy.  An  estate  was  valued  by  its  convenience 
of  situation  for  despoiling  peasants  and  travellers. 

Of  P'rance,  in  the  eleventh  century,  a  monkish  authority 
says,  that  the  whole  kingdom  was  disturbed  by  incessant 
fightings  : — "  Everywhere  were  robberies,  and  besieging  of 
public  roads,  endless  burnings  of  houses,"  the  only  causes 
being  an  unconquerable  greed  for  money."  So  terrible 
were  the  evils  that  a  Church  Council  held  near  Soissons 
(a.d.  909)  declared  that  "  the  cities  of  France  were  depopu- 
lated, the  monasteries  burned  or  destroyed,  the  fields  re- 
duced to  solitude,  so  that  we  can  truly  say  that  the  sword 
has  pierced  to  the  very  soul."  ^  Wherever  feudalism 
extended,  there  was  private  war.  Each  gentleman  and 
nobleman  felt  it  to  be  a  peculiar  right  of  his  class.  It 
existed  in  all  parts  of  Europe  ;  less  perhaps  in  England 
than  elsewhere,  owing  either  to  the  greater  power  of  the 
Norman  kings,  or  to  the  deeper  working  of  Christianity. 
In  Germany,  as  we  have  said,  its  effects  were  the  most 

'  Germania  tota  magnum  latrocinium,  et  ille  inter  nobiles  glorioslor 
qui  rapacior. 

2  Erat  eo  tempore,  maximis  ad  invicem  hostilitatibus,  totius  Franco- 
rum  regni  facta  turbatio  ;  crebra   ubique  latrocinia,  viarum  obsessio. 

.     .     incendia  infinita,  etc.     {Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  1,  ^Zz) 

2  Depopulatae  urbes,  destructa  vel  incensa  monasteria,  agri  in 
solitudinem  sunt  redacti,  ut  aut  vere  possimus  dicere,  quia  pervenit 
gladius  usque  ad  animam.    (fiesta.  Tros.,  2,  536). 


PEACE  OF  GOD,  145 

disastrous,  threatening  even  the  dissolution  of  society. 
There  was  in  that  country  a  greater  number  of  nobles  and 
of  self-governing  jurisdictions  than  in  any  other.  Each 
city  or  province  had  independent  powers  with  especial 
privileges.  The  interregnum  between  1256-73  accustomed 
these  powers  to  uncontrollable  license.  The  Diets  seldom 
met,  and  were  not,  from  their  numbers,  adapted  to  settle 
questions  of  right.  In  consequence,  Germany  had  no 
court  capable  of  deciding  disputes  between  its  more  power- 
ful members,  or  of  repressing  such  evils  as  private  war. 

The  "  Peace  of  God." — A  remarkable  mode  in  which 
the  religious  spirit  aided  to  raise  society  of  the  Middle 
Ages  out  of  this  barbarism  was  through  the  establishment, 
by  the  clergy  and  the  mercantile  community,  of  the  so- 
called  "  Peace  of  God."  In  France  especially,  in  the  tenth 
and  eleventh  centuries,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  kind 
of  religious  "  revival  "  of  peace.  The  clergy  preached  it; 
religious  enthusiasts  went  from  village  to  village  proclaim- 
ing it  in  the  name  of  Christ  the  "  Prince  of  Peace  ;  "  holy 
relics  were  brought  to  public  places,  on  which  the  wild 
barons  swore  a  vow  of  peace  ;  great  councils  were  held  to 
spread  abroad  the  ideas  of  brotherly  amity,  and  the  Popes 
themselves  wrote  letters  and  published  Encyclicals  to 
recommend  the  vows  and  habits  of  concord  to  all  Christian 
nations.  An  enthusiasm  thus  nourished  by  religion  took 
possession  of  a  military  and  uncontrolled  population  for  a 
period,  in  favour  of  quiet  and  good  will  towards  especially 
the  poor,  the  unbefriended,  the  weak,  and  those  engaged 
in  useful  occupations,  or  in  the  services  of  religion.  There 
was  almost  a  "  crusade  of  peace  "  in  certain  parts  of  France 
in  the  eleventh  century,  One  of  the  old  liturgies  of  this 
period  made  a  special  ground  of  penitence  that  the  peti- 
tioner had  not  reconciled  two  enemies.^  The  clergy  not 
*  Peccavi,  duos  non  conciliavi.     {Digby.     Mor.  Caih.,  9,  12.) 

L 


146  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

being  able  in  such  an  age  to  secure  all  the  year  for  peaceful 
pursuits,  induced  the  wild  barons  to  admit  certain  days, 
certain  places  and  pursuits,  as  always  resting  under  the 
protection  of  a  consecrated  peace.  Whoever  violated  this 
compact  was  exposed  to  every  worldly  and  spiritual  penalty. 
He  lost  his  fief  if  a  baron,  his  other  property  went  to  his 
heirs,  he  was  driven  out  from  among  Christian  men,  and 
his  body  refused  Christian  burial  ;  if  a  serf  he  might  be 
punished  by  the  loss  of  his  hand  or  even  of  his  life.  All 
the  thunders  of  the  law  and  religion  followed  the  accursed 
man  who  broke  the  peace  of  God.  The  holy  days  were 
protected,  the  feasts  and  other  Christian  festivals,  and  even 
in  each  week,  the  time  from  Thursday  evening  to  Monday 
morning — this  period  covering  the  days  of  the  Passion  and 
the  Resurrection.  The  peasants  were  especially  guarded 
by  this  humane  impulse,  and  the  cart  and  grain  and  cattle 
of  the  farmer  were  made  as  sacred  as  the  altar  or  the 
church.  Christianity,  with  its  usual  spirit,  led  men  to  pro- 
tect particularly  the  weak,  and  every  vow  of  peace  included 
the  women,  children,  travellers,  strangers,  and  holy  clerks. 

When  society  was  in  the  chaos  we  have  just  described, 
and  law  existed  alone  in  the  strong  hand,  and  all  the 
weaker  classes  were  exposed  to  incessant  oppression  and 
cruelty  from  the  stronger,  we  can  imagine  what  it  was  to 
have  created  a  religious  and  sacred  protection,  if  only  for 
a  time,  for  all  who  were  trodden  down  and  injured.  It 
gave  European  society  its  first  taste  of  a  rule  of  law  and 
order.  The  brotherhoods  for  the  Paix  dc  Dieii  in  France 
in  the  eleventh  century  formed  the  great  point  of  resist- 
ance against  the  feudal  barons  and  their  anarchical  con- 
flicts. They  laid  the  foundation  for  the  rural  CoinnnincSy 
which  have  been  so  important  an  element  since  in  the 
French  political  life,  and  they  formed  the  first  great 
support  for  the  kings  when  they  subsequently  endeavoured 


THE  PLEDGE  OF  PEACE.  147 

to  introduce  law  and  courts  and  royal  power  in  place  of 
"Private  War  "^  among  feudal  or  half  independent  barons. 

Many  religious  fraternities  to  reconcile  enemies  were 
formed  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Muratori  traces  the  guilds 
of  Italy  to  missionaries,  who  in  the  time  of  Frederick  II. 
went  about  endeavouring  to  appease  discords  and  make 
peace.^  One  of  the  conditions  for  entering  a  fraternity 
of  builders  formed  at  Chartres  in  the  Middle  Ages  was 
that  the  candidate  must  confess  and  be  reconciled  to  his 
enemies.^ 

Among  the  early  efforts  to  bring  about  peace  in  France 
was  a  meeting  of  the  clergy  and  Christians  at  Charons, 
989  A.D.,  which  solemnly  anathematized  all  who  should 
plunder  the  poor  and  attack  the  holy  clergy.  The  estab- 
lishment of  peace  was  held  to  be  a  means  of  removing 
Divine  displeasure,  and  in  944,  after  a  terrible  pestilence 
in  Limoges,  the  clergy  ordered  a  fast  and  the  "  Pact  of 
Peace  "  was  concluded  by  the  seigneurs  and  the  duke.  It 
is  related  by  the  chroniclers  that  the  archbishop  "on 
account  of  the  violence  of  the  men  of  war  and  the  ruin 
of  the  poor,"  forbade  divine  worship  in  monasteries  or 
churches  to  those  engaged  in  breaking  the  peace. 

The  form  of  the  pledge  of  peace,  administered  by  the 
archbishop  to  the  fierce  barons,  is  given  by  Du  Cange : 

"  I,  W ,  Archbishop  of  Puy,  in  the  name  of  the  Holy 

Trinity,  to  all  who  expect  supreme  pity  .  .  .  As  we 
know  that  without  peace  no  one  shall  see  the  Lord  ;  we 
order  the  faithful  .  .  .  that  no  one  shall  make  an 
attack  on  a  church,  that  no  one  shall  plunder  horses, 
cattle,  chickens,  etc.,  from  the  peasants  .  .  .  that  ne 
one  shall  attack  merchants  or  plunder  them    ...     If 

»  See  Semichon,  La  Pedx  et  la  Trive  de  Dwt, 

*  Ant.  Ital.,  Ixxv. 


148  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

any  one  do  not  keep  this  peace  let  him  be  excommunicated, 
anathematized  and  driven  from  the  Church." 

The  Council  of  Poictiers  (1004  A.D.)  attempted  to  estab- 
lish forms  of  law  to  check  private  war.  If  there  was  a 
quarrel  between  two  dioceses  both  must  appear  before  the 
seigneur  or  judge  of  the  county,  and  endeavour  to  obtain 
justice.  If  one  should  refuse  to  appear,  the  judge  must  do 
justice  and  seize  upon  "  the  hostage  "  of  the  recusant.  If 
he  had  not  the  power,  he  must  convoke  the  princes  and 
bishops,  and  all  should  unite  to  attack  and  punish  the 
resisting  member,  and  not  cease  till  he  yields  to  the  claims 
of  justice. 

These  first  efforts  under  the  religious  impulse  to  bring 
order  out  of  chaos  and  to  create  law  in  a  barbarous  society, 
are  highly  important  in  the  history  of  progress. 

In  1 02 1  famine  and  war  desolated  the  country  around 
Amiens.  To  avert  these  evils  the  relics  of  saints  were  col- 
lected in  the  churches,  and  a  vow  -w'as  made  over  them  of 
an  inviolable  "  Peace  of  God  "  during  one  week,  and  the 
people  took  oath,  if  a  quarrel  arose,  not  to  resort  to  rapine 
and  burning  till  they  had  on  a  fixed  day  exposed  their 
griefs  before  the  Church.  The  most  terrible  forms  of  ex- 
communication were  uttered  against  those  "  Chevaliers 
who  would  not  promise  peace,"  and  "  in  the  name  of  God 
the  All  powerful,  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Holy  Ghost," 
they  were  accursed  of  men. 

These  efforts  of  the  clergy  succeeded  in  forming  Peace 
Associations,  which  frequently  employed  the  barons  to 
execute  the  orders  of  the  councils,  and  to  collect  the 
tribute  {paciegiunt)  which  formed  a  fund  to  compensate  the 
sufferers  under  violence.  Thus  early  began  a  kind  of  assu- 
rance fund  or  public  tax  to  protect  the  weak  of  society.  In 
1030,  a  famine  occurred  in  parts  of  P'rance,  followed  by 
years  of  abundance.     The  popular  gratitude  to  Providence 


THE  PEACE  OF  GOD.  149 

was  made  manifest  in  councils  for  the  Peace  of  God.  Laws 
were  passed  to  forbid  travelling  with  arms,  and  the  church 
was  made  an  inviolable  asylum  for  the  weak  and  perse 
cuted.  The  assemblies  were  electrified  with  pious  ardour, 
and  the  bishops  raised  their  crosses  to  heaven,  and  men  of 
the  people,  holding  their  hands  in  the  air,  cried  "  Peace ! 
Peace!"  and  took  God  to  witness  of  their  "  perfect  pact 
of  peace."  1 

Among  the  ordinances  establishing  peace,  are  those  of 
the  Council  of  Limoges  (103 1),  r.  iking  the  church  an 
asylum,  protecting  the  clergy,  forbidding  violence  or  rapine 
upon  peasants,  serfs  or  clerks,  proclaiming  fines  for  break- 
ing peace,  establishing  days  of  peace,  and  enforcing  it 
on  all  religious  days.  Peasants,  serfs  and  their  animals 
are  protected,  and  war  is  confined  to  the  seigneurs.  All 
disputes  are  to  be  brought  before  the  bishop  and  his  chap- 
ter. This,  be  it  remembered,  was  two  centuries  before  the 
royal  power  in  France  atte.aipted  to  restrain  the  warlike 
propensities  of  the  feudal  barons.  The  proclamation 
of  peace  was  somevvliat  in  this  wise  :  "  From  Thursday 
evening,  among  all  Christians,  friends  or  enemies,  neigh- 
bours or  distant,  peace  must  reign  till  Monday  at  sun-rise  ; 
and  during  these  four  days  and  four  nights  there  ought  to 
exist  a  complete  security,  and  every  one  can  go  about  his 
own  affairs  in  safety  from  all  fear  of  his  enemies  and  under 
protection  of  this  truce  and  this  peace.  Let  those  who 
observe  this  peace  be  absolved  by  the  Father  All-powerful, 
by  Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  and  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  etc.  etc. 

"  Let  those  who  have  promised  truce  and  have  volun- 
tarily broken  it,  be  excommunicated  by  God,  etc.  ;  let 
these  be  accursed  for  ever,  damned  as  Dathan  and  Abiram 
etc    ...     If  any  one    in    the    days   of    the    truce  of 

'  Quoted  from  old  chronicles,  by  Semichon. 


r50  GESTA  CHRIST!. 

God  commit  a  homicide,  let  him  be  banished  from  his 
country,  let  him  depart  from  Jesus !"  etc. !  ^ 

The  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Roussillon  (1047)  "  estab- 
lished this  peace  and  this  truce,  because  the  Divine  Law 
and  the  Christian  Religion  were  almost  destroyed,  and 
iniquity  passed  all  bounds,  and  charity  was  cooled,"  etc. 

The  Popes  were  not  behind  the  councils  in  encouraging 
peace  among  the  barbarous  barons.  Pope  Nicholas  11. 
(1059)  9-"d  Alexander  II  (1068)  make  public  proclama- 
tion of  the  Peace  of  God,  so  that  this  first  effort  for 
civilization  and  order  spread  into  North  and  Middle  France, 
Italy,  Spain,  England,  Normandy  and.  Belgium. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  in  a  charter  of  this  period, 
from  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges  (1065),  commerce  is  pro- 
tected by  this  new  pact  of  amity,  and  whoever  takes  refuge 
in  a  fair  is  to  be  especially  safe. 

Under  Pope  Urban  II.,  the  Council  of  Clermont  (1095) 
re-affirmed  this  peace,  and  ordered  that  whoever  on  the 
days  of  peace  should  strike  man  or  woman,  unless  in 
self-defence,  should  be  held  a  violator  of  the  peace.  If 
after  a  summons  by  the  archbishop  he  appear  in  seven 
days,  he  will  merely  pay  a  fine.  If  he  refuse  to  appear 
he  will  be  excommunicated,  and  after  excommunication 
will  pay  whatever  fine  the  bishop's  court  may  set.  Who- 
ever kills  a  man  during  these  days  will  be  exiled  for  seven 
years,  unless  he  reconcile  himself  with  the  relatives  of 
the  murdered  one,  and  pay  a  fine,  which  is  to  be  divided 
between  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  authorities.  Merchants, 
travellers,  women, ^  and  the  cattle,  implements  and  flocks 
of  the  peasants  are  protected.  If  any  baron  violated 
this  compact,  the  count  and  other  nobility  must  prosecute 

*  Historiens  de  France,  quoted  by  Semichon. 

'  Statutum  est  ut  in  omni  die,  et  monachi  et  clerici,  et  feminae  et 
quae  cum  eis  fuerint,  in  pace  permaneant,  etc. 


A  REVIVAL   OF  PEACE.  15 1 

him,  after  due  warning  by  the  Peace  Association.  This 
pact  was  to  last  three  years.  In  other  associations,  all  the 
nobility  over  twelve  years  of  age  took  oath  to  observe 
this  constitution  of  public  order,  and,  if  summoned  by  the 
archbishop,  to  take  arms  and  aid,  "  so  may  God  and  the 
saints  aid  me  !" 

The  king  gradually  put  himself  at  the  head  of  these 
peace  associations,  and  they  were  no  doubt  one  means 
by  which  the  royal  power  in  France  controlled  the  feudal 
savagery. 

At  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  enthusiasm  was 
increased  by  the  appearance  of  one  who  claimed  to  be  a 
divine  messenger.  A  carpenter  of  Guienne,  working  in  a 
forest,  had  a  vision  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  who  showed  him 
a  banner  with  the  words,  "  Lamb  of  God  who  takest  away 
the  sins  of  the  world!  give  us  peace!"  and  directed 
him  to  carry  this  banner  to  the  bishop  and  invite  him  to 
preach  the  "  Peace  of  God."  He  obeyed,  and  was  received 
everywhere  as  a  messenger  from  heaven,  and  various  noble 
persons  and  others  formed  brotherhoods  of  "  Agnus  Dei  " 
under  this  banner,  and  laboured  for  peace. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  Philip  Augustus  prohibited 
any  one  from  commencing  hostilities  against  the  friends 
or  vassals  of  adversaries  until  forty  days  after  the  offence  ; 
this  was  called  the  "  Royal  Truce  "  or  "  King's  Quaran- 
tine." 

In  the  same  century.  Friar  John  of  Vicenza  traversed  a 
great  portion  of  Italy,  preaching  the  "  Peace  of  God," 
reconciling  individuals,  and  even  the  feuds  of  towns.  In 
the  succeeding  centuries,  other  monks  made  similar 
journeys,  and  aided  to  deliver  Europe  from  its  ancient 
barbarism.  In  the  fourteenth  century,  a  great  religious 
movement  f)r  peace  stirred  the  minds  of  different  nations 
of  Europe.     Pilgrims  with  white  bands  around  their  neckSj 


Ija  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

I  Bianchi}  marched  through  various  lands,  preaching  the 
duty  of  a  Christian  peace.  It  is  related  that  in  the  month 
of  October,  1338,  there  appeared  in  a  church  of  Rome,  in 
the  silence  of  the  night,  certain  unknown  persons  who 
cried  incessantly,  "Peace!  Peace!"  and  uttered  no  other 
words.  The  people  hearing  these  appeals,  went  to  the 
palaces  of  the  Orsinis  and  the  Colonnas,  who  were  enemies, 
and  made  peace  between  them  in  a  truly  miraculous 
manner.^  A  beautiful  letter  of  the  good  king  of  France, 
St.  Louis  (1276  A.D.),  to  his  son,  is  handed  down,  showing 
how  religion  acted  in  promoting  peace.  "  Dear  son,  I 
charge  thee  that  to  the  utmost  of  thy  power,  thou  keepest 
thyself  from  making  war  with  any  Christian,  and  if  any 
have  injured  thee,  try  various  ways  of  recovering  thy  right 
before  thou  makest  war  ;  and  have  cai'e  to  eschew  the  sins 
that  are  committed  in  war,"  etc.  He  is  exhorted  to  spare 
the  clergy,  and  poor  people,  and  the  property  of  those  who 
have  not  injured  him  ;  and,  best  of  all,  to  avoid  all  wars, 
for  that  was  pleasing  to  our  Lord.^ 

The  nobles  themselves,  in  France,  feeling  the  calamities 
of  private  war,  gave  bonds  of  assurance,  by  which  any 
violation  of  order  might  be  punished  ;  and  even  agreed 
to  refer  their  disputes  to  a  majority  of  their  own  number. 
But  it  required  all  the  efforts  of  the  Church,  the  mercantile 
community  and  the  crown,  for  centuries,  before  this  great 
abuse  could  be  remedied.  It  is  said  that  no  less  than 
thirty  councils  in  different  parts  of  Europe  proclaimed  the 
Trenga  Dei  (Truce  of  God),  or  dies  treiigarios.  And  it 
was  not  till  the  fifteenth  century  that  Charles  VI.  ventured 

^  Mu7'atori. 

^  Lagacio  (quoted  by  Digby,  Mor.  Cafh.,  9,  12). 

*  Chier  fiuz,  je  I'enscigne  que  tu  te  gardes  a  ton  pooir  que  tu 
n'aies  guerre  a  nul  Cretien,  et  s'il  te  faisoit  aucunes  injures,  essai 
plusieurs  voies  a  savoir  se  tu  pensser  recouvrer  ton  dioit,  etc. 
— Duchesne. 


PEACE   OF    GOD  IN  GERMANY.  153 

to  put  forth  a  law  absolutely  forbidding,  under  heavy 
penalties,  private  war  in  France. 

The  power  of  Jesus  on  human  society  is  seen  in  the  slow 
humanizing  of  feelings  and  practices.  It  is  aided  often  by 
other  forces,  which  are  more  selfish.  All  self-guarding 
interests  in  European  communities  must  have  discouraged 
private  war ;  the  influence  of  associated  life  in  towns,  the 
prospects  of  gains  in  trade,  and  the  struggle  of  kings 
against  feudalism  worked  to  put  an  end  to  it.  But  more 
than  any  or  all  of  these  were  the  teachings  of  benevolence 
and  unselfishness  read  each  day,  or  expressed  at  the  altar, 
or  from  the  chancel,  and  the  sentiments  of  affection  and 
reverence  cherished  everywhere  by  individuals  towards 
Him  who  is  the  "  Prince  of  Peace." 

Geniiany. — The  Peace  of  God  is  said  to  have  been  first 
established  in  Germany  in  108 1,  by  the  bishop  of  Liege.  It 
was  agreed  by  common  consent  in  his  bishopric,  that  from 
the  first  day  of  Advent  till  Christmas,  and  from  the  be- 
ginning of  Lent  to  the  eighth  of  Pentecost,  no  one  should 
carry  arms,  or  be  guilty  of  incendiarism,  brigandage,  or 
acts  of  violence;  that  no  one  should  wound  or  kill  any  one. 
Every  free  man  convicted  of  such  an  attempt,  would  lose 
his  heritage,  be  deprived  of  his  fief,  and  driven  from  the 
diocese.  Every  serf  would  be  punished  by  loss  of  his 
property  and  his  right  hand.  The  "  peaceful "  time  each 
week  was  to  be  from  Saturday  at  sunset  till  Monday 
morning.  The  Archbishop  of  Cologne  soon  after  intro- 
duced a  similar  truce  in  his  diocese,  with  the  solemn  order 
that  "  one  ought  never  to  forget  that  the  vow  of  holy 
peace  must  be  kept  with  a  fidelity  as  much  greater  as  it  is 
made  to  God  and  not  to  man."  During  1093,  an  associa- 
tion was  formed  in  Germany,  of  the  nobles  and  princes, 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  emperor,  for  a  peace  to 
last  from  November  for  two  years  till  the  Feast  of  the 


154  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

Passover.  In  1097,  the  emperor  united  with  it ;  in  r  103, 
a  pact  of  peace  was  formed  by  nobles,  bishops,  and 
emperor  for  four  years ;  it  was  similar  to  the  French 
compact,  but  included  also  the  Jews.^  Very  severe  penal- 
ties were  affixed  to  its  violation.  The  council  of  1105 
proclaimed  the  Peace  of  God  3  but  in  general  it  may  be 
said  that  in  Germany  the  imperial  power,  more  than  the 
Church,  sustained  and  protected  order.  Under  Frederick 
11.  (1224)  the  "truce  of  God"  had  become  the  "truce  of 
the  empire,"  with  similar  days  devoted  to  cessation  from 
violence  and  war. 

The  evil  of  private  war,  as  we  have  before  described,  had 
reached  in  that  country  its  utmost  extreme.  All  efforts 
against  it  seemed  in  vain.  The  emperor  (1255)  forbade  it 
absolutely,  but  without  avail.  Finally  cities  and  nobles 
entered  into  alliances  and  associations  to  form  a  public 
peace,  and  to  punish  those  who  should  violate  it  ;  and  in 
this  mode,  the  leagues  of  the  Rhine  and  of  Suabia,  from 
the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth  century,  endeavoured  to  secure 
general  order  and  security.  Owing  to  the  greater  indepen- 
dence of  the  rural  nobility  and  of  the  separate  provinces  in 
Germany,  the  devices  which  were  so  successful  in  France 
failed  here.  The  religious  sentiment  alone  could  not  put 
an  end  to  this  savagery.  The  last  remedy  tried  was  the 
application  of  an  ancient  religious  custom,  under  the 
combined  influence  of  the  Church  and  the  free  cities — 
the  formation  in  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth 
centuries  by  the  barons,  nobles,  bishops,  and  cities,  of 
courts  of  arbitration,  or  Austrdge? 

'  The  Sachsenspiegel  also  includes  the  Jews.  Cleric!,  mulieres, 
monickes,  agricole,  mercatores,  itineratores,  piscatores,  Judet,  omni 
die  at  omni  tempore  firmam  pacem  habebunt  in  personis  et  in  rebus. 
{Ssp.,  ii.  66.) 

*  Das  Austrdgal-verfahren  d.  D.  Bundes.  Von  Leonhaidi.  Frank- 
furt, 1838. 


ARBITRATION  155 

Arbitration. — This  practice  exerted  so  strong  an  influence 
in  bringing  order  out  of  anarchy,  and  introducing  peace 
instead  of  war,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
through  a  large  portion  of  Germany,  that  it  is  worth  while 
to  dwell  on  it  briefly.  It  was  an  ancient  custom  among  the 
German  race,  when  a  case  in  dispute  could  not  be  readily 
decided  by  the  wager  of  battle,  to  refer  it  to  wise  men  of 
the  tribe  for  arbitration.  Yet  even  as  late  as  the  tenth 
century,  an  Emperor  of  Germany  (Otto  I.,  938  A.D.) 
refused  to  decide  certain  difficult  cases  by  arbiters,  and 
preferred  to  refer  them  to  the  sword  ;  ^  and  another 
important  legal  question — whether  the  sons  of  brothers 
should  inherit  property  equally  with  the  fathers  or  ances- 
tors— was  decided  in  Otto's  reign  (942)  by  the  sword,  in 
favour  of  the  former."  When  Christianity  became  a  living 
force  among  these  tribes,  the  practice  of  arbitration  was 
strengthened  and  reinforced  by  the  words  of  Christ  to  His 
disciples :  "  If  thy  brother  sin  against  thee,  go,  show 
him  his  fault  between  thee  and  him  alone  ;  if  he  hear  thee, 
thou  hast  gained  thy  brother.  But  if  he  hear  thee  not, 
take  with  thee  one  or  two  more,  that  at  the  mouth  of  two 
witnesses,  or  three,  every  word  may  be  established.  And 
if  he  refuse  to  hear  them,  tell  it  unto  the  congregation," 
etc.  (Matt,  xviii.  15- 17);  and  by  the  words  of  Paul,  "If 
then  ye  have  to  judge  of  things  pertaining  to  this  life,  do 
ye  set  them  to  judge  who  are  of  no  account  in  the  church  ! 
.  .  .  Is  it  so,  that  there  cannot  be  found  among  you 
one  wise  man  who  shall  be  able  to  decide  between  his 
brethren,  but  brother  goeth  to  law  with  brother  and  that 
before  unbelievers  ?     Nay,  already  it  is  altogether  a  defect 

'  Von  Leonhardi. 

•  Rex  autem  meliori  consilio  usus  noluit  viris  nobiles  ac  senes  populi 
inhonesti  tractari  ;  sed  magis  rem  inter  gladiatores  discern!  jussit, 
etc.     i^Annai.  de  rebus  Sax  in.  eic,  quoted  by  Leonhardi,  p.  20.) 


Ij6  GESTA   CHRISTL 

in  you,  that  ye  have  lawsuits  one  with  another"  (l  Cor. 
vi.  II,  7). 

It  became  a  habit  of  the  Christians  to  refer  theif 
disputes  and  difficulties  to  their  own  brethren,  or  their 
leaders  and  overseers,  for  decision.  The  bishops'  trials 
(audientice  episcopales)  became  a  regular  part  of  the  legal 
machinery  of  Christian  society.  Their  decisions  ^  were 
often  without  appeal  ;  and  on  the  request  of  one  of  the 
litigants  even  purely  civil  cases  could  be  decided  by  them. 
The  habit  of  referring  contests  and  disputes  to  the  clergy  as 
arbitrators,  came  down  in  Germany  into  the  Middle  Ages. 
And  at  length  in  those  centuries  we  have  mentioned,  there 
seemed  no  other  way  out  of  the  anarchy  of  society,  than 
by  some  new  application  of  this  principle.  The  feuds 
of  the  barons  with  one  another,  their  disputes  with  the 
peasantry,  the  contests  of  city  with  city,  or  of  each  with 
the  nobility,  the  differences  of  the  clergy  with  the  parishes 
or  with  the  barons,  were  continually  referred  during  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  to  Aiistrdge  or  courts 
of  arbitration.  These  arbiters  were  sometimes  named  in 
treaties,  sometimes  chosen  by  mutual  consent,  or  appointed 
by  neutral  persons,  or  taken  by  lot. 

Leonhardi,^  who  has  written  a  learned  work  on  this 
subject,  gives  a  list  of  numerous  arbitrations  during  these 
centuries,  and  in  almost  all  cases  the  arbiters  are  the 
clergy.  One  of  the  first  Austriige  reported  is  in  873,  in 
a  dispute  between  the  Emperor  Lewis  and  the  Bishop 
of  Strasburg,  which  is  referred  to  suitable  persons  among 
the  neighbouring  citizens  and  among  the  faithful.^ 

A  few  cases  are  also  related  in  the  succeeding  centuries. 

'  Cod.  Theod.,  tit.  i.,  tit.  iv.  de  jud.  episcop.         '  Leonhardi,  p.  20. 

'  Ut  per  idoneos  circa  vicinos  et  fideles  nostros,  fideliumque 
nostrorum  homines  plenissime  sub  sacramento  inquiratur  et  ad 
finem  vite  usque.     {Leonhardi^  vol.  i,  p.  20.) 


FORMS  OF  ARBITRATION.  157 

In  the  thirteenth  century  they  are  the  most  common  ;  and 
various  leagues  are  formed  during  this  period  among  the 
free  cities  and  others,  for  mutual  support  and  defence,  all 
of  which  contained  provisions  for  settling  disputes,  feuds 
and  contests  by  arbiters. 

The  Forms  of  A  rbitration. — These  present  a  remarkable 
evidence  of  the  religious  sentiment  working.  Thus  in  the 
following,  from  Martene,  quoted  by  Dig-by,  "  I,  Henry,  by 
grace  of  God  bishop  of  Liege,  mindful,  nay  solicitous  of 
our  Lord's  example,  who,  coming  into  the  world,  brought 
peace  to  men  of  good  will,  and  who,  departing  from  it, 
left  peace  to  his  disciples,  make  known  to  all,  present 
and  future,  how  the  contention  between  the  Church  of 
St.  Peter  of  Liege  and  the  Monastery  of  St.  Hubert  shall 
be  decided,"  etc.^ 

Or  this  in  1 100  A.D.  :  "  As  the  state  of  the  whole  Church 
is  consolidated  by  the  pacific  bonds  of  Charity,  and  as 
the  unity  of  holy  charity  is  dissipated  by  the  pestiferous 
scandal  of  dissensions,  whoever  wishes  to  come  to  the 
vision  of  eternal  peace,  must  of  necessity  study  with  all 
diligence  to  keep  peace,  if  possible,  with  all  men,  and 
especially  with  brethren  ;   therefore  we,  the  Canons  of  the 

Church  of  M ,  loving  peace  and  concord,  and  desiring 

to  take  away  from  the  midst  of  us  the  evil  of  discord,  have 
put  an  end  in  this  manner  to  the  dispute  between  us  and 
the  Monks  of  St.  Vincent,"  etc.^ 

This  form  breathes  a  like  spirit.  It  is  found  in  the 
pact  of  reconciliation  between  Henry,  Archbishop  of 
Treves,  and  Theoderic,  Abbot  of  St.  Matthew,  and  a 
certain  monk  at  Rome.  "  The  pacific  hearts  of  those 
persons  enlightened  by  truth  and  by  the  doctrine  of  Christ 
teaching  peace   to   men,  though  sometimes  liable   to   be 

>  Mor.  Cath.,  3,  82. 

«  Ap.  Martene.     (Digby,  2,  81.) 


158  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

torn  b>  the  enemy  of  the  human  race,  sowing  the  seeds 
of  hatred,  yet  in  the  process  of  time,  we  are  sure  to  expel 
the  darkness  of  that  chief  maligner,  and  to  recover  peace, 
which  puts  an  end  to  all  strife."  ^ 

A  striking  instance  of  arbitration  is  given  in  the  Rhenish 
League  (1254  A.D.),  which  stipulates  with  its  confederates, 
that  in  order  to  remove  every  occasion  for  contest  and 
every  source  of  discord,  they  should  each  choose  four  men 
who  should  together  amicably  decide  all  questions  which 
arose  between  them.^  Many  cities,  knights  and  parishes 
united  with  this  confederation  on  these  conditions.  A 
characteristic  instance  of  the  use  of  Aiistrdge  appears  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  when  a  contest  arose  between  the 
Schwabian  League  and  the  rebellious  peasants  of  Baiers- 
furth  (1525  A.D.),  where  each  party  were  to  choose  two 
arbiters  of  honour  and  position,  who  were  to  be  laymen.^ 
Another  also  is  mentioned  in  1 324,  when  a  very  ancient 
feud  between  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  Count  of  Busdeck, 
and  Count  John  of  Nassau,  with  the  Landgraf  of  Hesse, 
was  settled  in  this  way  ;  and  again  where  (1350  A.D.)  a  dis- 
pute between  the  Emperor  and  the  Count  of  Brandenburg 
was  thus  reasonably  and  peacefully  closed.^ 

These  courts  of  arbitration  came  first  to  assume  a  fixed 
and  legal  position  under  Maximilian  I.  (about  1500  A.D.)  ; 
and  thus  were  the  foundation  of  the  Austragal  Court  of 
the  German  Confederation  in  modern  times. 

In  1495,  Maximilian  put  under  the  ban  of  the  empire, 
and  fined  to  the  amount  of  2,000  marks  gold,  every  city 
or  individual  who  accepted  or  gave  a  challenge  to  private 

»  Quoted  by  Digby.      (3,  83.) 

2  Ad  removendum  autem  omnem  litis  occasionem  aut  discordia 
fomitem  .  .  .  quatuor  viros  inter  nos  elegimus,  etc.  'Quoted  by 
Leonhardi,  vol.  i.  p.  26.) 

2  Leon]ia7-di,  vol.  i.  p.  45. 

*  Ibid.^  vol.  i.  p.  7^. 


END  OF  PRIVATE    WAR,  159 

war.     This  was  the  formal,  though  not  the  final,  close  of 
the  right  of  "  diffidation,"  ^  as  it  was  called. 

Such  then  was  the  arbitration  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In 
other  words,  the  Christian  principle,  aided  by  self-interest, 
put  an  end  during  those  centuries  to  private  war  in 
Germany  ;  it  lingered,  however,  till  the  end  of  the  sixteen*^h 
century. 

In  Spain  and  Italy,  it  was  also  abolished  by  the  com- 
bined influences  of  the  Church  and  of  mercantile  society; 
in  the  former,  Charles  V.  (15 19)  enforcing  by  a  special 
law  all  previous  prohibitions  of  it. 

In  Iceland  the  Gragas  hand  down  to  us  a  form  of 
anathema  against  whoever  shall  break  the  Peace  of  God. 
"  Let  him  be  proscribed  with  celestial  anathemas,  wherever 
men  pursue  the  wolf,  or  Christians  visit  the  Church,  or 
pagans  make  sacrifice,  or  mothers  give  birth  to  infants, 
or  infants  call  upon  their  mothers,  etc.,  let  him  be 
accursed  !  " 

Here,  too,  as  in  other  countries,  Christianity  aided  to 
bring  order  out  of  chaos. 

'  Du  Cange  {Diffidatio).  Fiebant  etiam  diffidationes  plerumque 
scripto  ad  hostem  modo.  The  word  implied  a  breaking  of  faith  ot 
peace  ;  and  thus  war  between  individuals. 

Grotius  defines  di£idare  as  "  to  declare  war."  (3,  9.) 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

WAGER   OF   BATTLE   AND   ORDEAL. 

One  of  the  grandest  fruits  of  the  human  intellect  and 
conscience  combined  has  been  the  system  of  the  Roman 
law.  It  carried  the  principles  of  justice  and  reasonable 
administration  to  the  remotest  and  wildest  tribes  of  the 
empire,  and  everywhere,  to  a  certain  extent,  substituted 
law  for  force,  reason  for  passion,  and  equity  for  abuse 
and  injustice.  Whatever  were  the  inconsistencies  of  its 
practical  execution,  and  the  abuses  of  its  administration,  it 
rested  on  some  of  the  sublimest  principles  attainable  by 
the  human  reason,  and  exerted  a  most  profound  influence 
on  the  progress  of  mankind.  We  have  seen,  however, 
how  ineffective  Roman  law  was  to  eradicate  some  of  the 
worst  abuses  of  antiquity,  and  how  much  Christianity 
modified   it  under  the  later  emperors. 

With  the  rise  of  the  northern  barbarians  and  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  empire,  this  grand  work  of  antiquity 
was  submerged  by  the  current  of  barbarism  and  super- 
stition, and  the  progress  of  the  world,  in  regard  to  right- 
reason  and  equity,  was  put  back  for  centuries.  In  this 
retrogression  the  Christian  religion  had  no  share.  Its 
principles  are  in  harmony  with  the  best  of  the  Stoical 
jurists,  and  the  rules  of  equity  and  fairness  which  form  so 
large  a  part  of  the  .system  are  such  as  the  Christian  faith 
especially  commends.  The  Church,  however  cannot 
claim  any  such  credit.     It  did  indeed  do  great  service  in 


WAGER  OF  BATTLE.  i6i 

repressing  among  the  German  and  Keltic  tribes,  violence, 
cruelty,  and  lust,  as  we  shall  abundantly  prove ;  it  steadily 
resisted  some  of  the  worst  tendencies  of  the  Roman 
law ;  but  it  permitted  and  encouraged  the  childish  super- 
stition which  for  ages  substituted  the  compurgators'  oath, 
and  the  ordeals  of  cold  Vv^atcr,  red-hot  iron,  the  cross, 
and  the  sacrament,  for  the  grand  principles  of  evidence 
of  this  great  body  of  law  ;  covering  Europe  with  relics  of 
a  childish  age  and  retarding  human  progress  for  hundreds 
of  years.  The  great  principle  of  the  Stoical  jurists,  that 
the  defendant  is  acquitted  if  the  accuser  do  not  prove  his 
case,^  was  reversed  for  almost  a  thousand  years  in  Europe, 
and  the  burden  of  proof  was  thrown  on  the  accused  by 
innumerable  superstitious  conditions  and  observances.  In- 
stead of  the  old  Roman  rule,  that  a  negative  need  not  be 
proved,  was  adopted  the  opposite  maxim,  and  the  greater 
portion  of  the  tests  required  the  negative  side  to  be  made 
evident.^ 

It  is  true  that  the  Church  often  opposed  ordeals,  but  it 
finally  surrounded  them  with  every  ceremony  to  make  them 
impressive,  and  in  many  cases  required  them  as  religious 
obligations. 

In  another  of  the  great  abuses  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
"  wager  of  battle  "  to  decide  disputes  and  legal  differences 
— a  relic  of  barbarism  which  lasted  till  this  century  in 
England — the  Church  has  a  better  "  record,"  and  the  spirit 
of  Christianity  had  much  to  do  with  its  final  disuse  and 
abolition.  But  that  for  a  thousand  years,  in  Europe,  a 
title  to  the  ownership  of  real  estate,  or  a  legal  difference, 
could  be  settled  by  duel,  under  the  very  shadow  of  the 
Church,  shows  how  slow  was  the  progress,  and  how  feeble 
the  influence,  of  the  Christian  Faith. 

*  Accusatore  non  probante,  reus  absolvitur. 
'  Lea.     Stipcrstition  and  Force. 

M 


i62  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

One  le<i-acy  Roman  law  left  to  the  world,  which  has  been 
a  storehouse  of  curses  and  evils,  the  use  of  torture  for  the 
accused  and  for  witnesses.  This  horrible  enoimity,  which 
so  shocks  all  sentiments  of  justice  and  humanity,  endured 
in  Europe  from  the  time  of  the  Twelve  Tables  to  the 
present  century.  Every  principle  of  Christianity  is  against 
it,  and  the  power  of  this  Religion  has  finally  eradicated 
it ;  the  Church,  for  several  centuries  being  more  inspired 
with  its  faith,  opposed  it,  but  at  length,  as  we  shall  see,  in 
the  interests  of  bigotry,  accepted  this  bequest  of  German 
barbarism  and  Roman  law,  and  inaugurated  an  era  of 
cruelty  and  injustice  rarely  surpassed  in  the  world's  annals. 
The  Inquisition  is  the  great  blot  on  the  historical  Church. 
For  centuries  all  principles  of  justice,  reason,  and  humanity 
were  forgotten,  and  the  name  of  the  Teacher  of  love  became 
the  cover  for  deeds  of  cruelty  and  injustice,  equalling  the 
worst  under  Greek  and  Roman  faiths.  As  tlie  study  of 
the  Roman  law  revived  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies, this  evil  feature  was  eagerly  adopted  in  the  com- 
bined interests  of  centralized  power  and  of  ecclesiastical 
superstition.  The  commercial  spirit  and  the  spirit  of 
the  free  communes,  struggled  against  it,  but  it  was  only 
uprooted  by  the  gradual  spread  of  Christian  principles. 

Wager  of  Battle. — Tacitus  says  of  the  warlike  tribes  who 
are  the  progenitors  of  the  most  vigorous  races  of  the 
present  day,  that  they  believe  "  God  is  especially  present 
with  those  in  battle."  ^  Two  hostile  tribes,  before  engaging 
in  hand-to-hand  struggle,  frequently  deputed  a  courageous 
warrior  from  each  to  contend  for  the  cause  at  issue,  and 
the  result  was  thought  to  show  on  which  side  the  god 
of  battles    inclined.     The    combat,  whether   between   tv/o 

•  Deum  adesse  bellantibus  credunt.     (fiertn.,  ^) 


WAGER   OF  BATTLE.  163 

or  many,  seemed  in  its  uncertain  issue  to  be  especially 
connected  with  unseen  powers/  and  the  consciousness  of 
rectitude,  no  doubt  did  often  strengthen  the  arms,  as  the 
conviction  of  guilt  would  weaken  the  muscles,  of  one  or 
the  other  combatant.  The  single  combat,  to  the  minds  of 
the  northern  races,  became  the  great  test  of  truth.  This 
was  especially  the  fact  after  the  experience  of  general 
perjury  and  falseness,  introduced  by  the  ancient  custom  of 
the  compurgators'  oath.  Under  this  peculiarly  Teutonic 
custom,  which  long  remained  in  English  jurisprudence 
under  the  name  of  "  wager  of  law,"  a  person  accused  of  a 
crime  appeared  to  deny  it  surrounded  by  a  number  of 
compurgators,  who  swore  not  to  their  knowledge  of  the 
facts,  but  as  partakers  in  the  oath  of  denial.^  This  legal 
practice,  which  existed  in  Europe  as  late  as  the  sixteenth 
century,  offered  irresistible  temptations  to  false  swearing, 
and  to  the  bold  and  honourable  Northman,  a  usage  which 
tested  the  truth  by  his  own  right  arm  and  at  sacrifice  of 
his  blood  seemed  infinitely  preferable  to  this  taking  refugp-- 
behind  the  oaths  of  associates.  Wager  of  battle  took  the 
place  of  the  compurgators'  oath  in  both  civil  and  criminal 
cases.  It  suited  the  fierce  habit  of  the  German  and  Keltic 
tribes  to  decide  doubtful  cases  by  the  stronger  hand  ;  and 
the  settlement  was  in  harmony  with  that  singular  defect  of 
barbarian  jurisprudence  for  a  thousand  years  in  Europe  (of 
which  we  have  already  spoken),  which,  above  all,  showed 
the  loss  of  the  influence  of  Roman  law  upon  civilization — 
namely,  the  throwing  the  proof  of  a  negative  on  the 
accused. 

Under  the  compurgators'  oath,  the  wager  of  battle,  ordeal 

*  An  old  German  proverb  said  :  "  Davon  soUen  wir  Gott  getruwen, 
das  er  den  Kampf  nur  nach  Recht  sheyde." 

^  Lea,  Superstition  and  Force^  p.  24.  Reeves'  History  of  English 
Law. 


i64  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

by  fire  or  water  or  the  sacraments,  and  the  system  of  tor* 
ture  through  so  many  centuries,  Europe  forgot  the  rules 
of  equity  and  the  maxims^  of  the  Stoical  jurists,  and 
threw  the  great  burden  of  proof  on  the  defendant.  Cen- 
turies of  injustice  to  unfortunate  persons  in  every  f.ortion 
of  Europe  prove  what  harvests  of  wrong  a  single  unjust 
principle  will  sow  in  the  world,  while  they  measure  the 
blessings  which  the  noble  ideas  of  the  Stoical  jurists  have 
scattered  through  every  people  which  has  felt  the  influence 
of  Roman  law. 

Wager  of  battle  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  duel, 
though  eminent  writers  confuse  them.  It  is  essentially  a 
judicial  trial  ;  like  war,  an  appeal  to  the  god  of  battles, 
conducted  under  given  ceremonies  and  conditions,  where 
the  penalties  were  fixed  and  legal.  To  nearly  all 
Europe  outside  of  Ron^  m  law,  it  was  as  natural  once  to 
determine  a  title  to  real  estate,  or  a  question  of  law  and 
evidence,  or  matters  of  mortgage  or  debt,  or  questions  con- 
cerning service  or  slavery,  or  the  guilt  of  a  criminal  charge, 
or  innumerable  similar  questions,  by  single  combat,  as  it 
is  now  by  juries,  courts,  and  arbitration. 

Nearly  all  the  tribes  which  overthrew  the  Roman  empire 
held  to  this  practice  ;  it  belonged  to  the  Keltic,  Slavonic, 
and  German  races.  Singular  enough,  it  is  not  found  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  or  Anglo-Danish  Codes,  and  is  believed 
to  have  been  introduced  into  England  by  William  as  a 
Norman  practice.  The  absence  of  mention  of  the  judicial 
combat  in  the  laws  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  is  not,  however, 
conclusive  evidence  against  its  practice.^ 

The  Goths,  who   were  more  under  the  combined  influ- 

*  .  .  .  cum  per  rerum  naturam  factum  negantis  probatio  nulla 
sit.     {Const.,  22.     De  prob.f  iv.  9.     Quoted  by  Lea.) 

"  An  apparent  allusion  to  judicial  combat  occurs  in  the  laws  of 
Henry  I.     (//.,  1,92.) 


JUDICIAL  DUEL.  165 

enccs  of  Roman  law  and  Christianity,  do  not  appear  to 
have  retained  the  trial  as  judicial.  The  practice  gained 
its  greatest  power  in  the  custom  of  challenging  witnesses. 
Any  litigant  finding  his  case  going  against  him,  could  accuse 
a  witness  of  perjury,  and  challenge  him  to  the  combat, 
thus  adjourning  the  case  and  deciding  it.  This  privilege 
was  finally  extended  to  the  power  of  challenging  the  court 
itself;  and  the  extraordinary  spectacle  was  presented  of  a 
defeated  suitor  fighting  with  the  judge  who  had  decided 
his  case  adversely. 

The  mode  of  conducting  these  combats  will,  perhaps,  be 
best  shown  by  referring  to  the  English  practice.  In  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  accused  had  the  right  to  choose 
only  in  doubtful  cases,  between  trial  by  jury  and  combat. 
The  latter  for  a  long  period  determined  all  questions  of 
fact ;  and  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  it  decided  in  pleas  con- 
cerning freehold,  and  in  writs  of  right  in  regard  to  land 
or  goods  sold,  debts  upon  mortgage  or  promise,  sureties 
denying  suretyship,  validity  of  charters,  manumission  of 
serfs,  questions  concerning  service,  etc.,  etc.^ 

According  to  the  English  law,  the  defendant  in  doubtful 
cases  could  choose  his  trial,  either /^r  corpus  ox  per  patriam, 
by  battle  or  by  jury.  But  in  certain  cases  the  justices  had 
the  right  to  control  the  mode  of  trial :  thus,  if  a  person  was 
accused  of  poisoning  another,  he  was  compelled  to  accept 
the  wager  of  battle  or  to  confess  ;  and  again,  other  cases 
were  too  clear  to  admit  of  risking  any  doubtful  decision. 
When  the  trial  by  battle  had  been  decided  upon,  the  defend- 
ant gave  security  that  he  would  defend  his  case,  and  the 
plaintiff  that  he  would  maintain  his  appeal.  Each  made 
oath  ;  the  plaintiff  in  a  form  of  this  nature  :  "  Hear  this,  O 
man  !  whom  I  hold  by  the  hand,  called  John  by  the  name 

'  Reeves'  Hist,  of  English  Law.  See  also  Mirror  of  Justices' 
(Trans,  by  W.  H.,  1768,  p.  160.) 


!66  GESTA    CHRISTT. 

of  baptism,  that  thou  art  perjured  because  thou  didst 
wickedly  and  feloniously  kill  my  brother,  etc.,  etc.,  and 
this  I  saw,  so  help  me  God  and  these  Holy  Gospels."  ^ 

Both  parties  were  then  committed  to  two  knights  or 
"  other  lawful  men "  to  lead  them  to  the  field  assigned. 
Each  then  took  another  oath  of  innocence,  and,  after  cer- 
tain ceremonies,  engaged  in  combat.  If  the  defendant 
supported  the  combat  all  day  till  the  stars  appeared,  he 
was  acquitted.  If  the  plaintiff  was  defeated  he  suffered 
capital  punishment  under  certain  circumstances  and  for- 
feited all  his  goods,  both  his  own  and  those  which  would 
come  to  his  heirs.  If  he  withdrew  his  charge  when  he 
appeared  on  the  field,  he  was  committed  to  gaol. 

In  cases  of  suits  in  regard  to  titles  of  land,  the  form  of 
oath  was  thus  :  "  1  am  ready  to  prove  it  by  my  freeman, 
John,  whom  his  father  at  his  death-bed  enjoined  by  the 
duty  he  owed  him,  that  if  at,  any  time  he  should  hear  of 
a  suit  for  this  land,  he  should  hazard  himself  in  a  duel  for 
it,  as  for  that  which  his  father  had  seen  and  heard."  ^ 

Glanville  gives  the  following  form  in  a  suit  against  a 
tenant  :  "  I  demand  against  this  H.,  half  a  knight's  fee  or 
plough-lands  in  such  a  village,  etc.,  and  this  I  am  ready 
to  prove  by  my  freeman,  I.,  and  if  any  accident  happen 
to  him  by  such  a  one,  or  by  a  third,  etc."  ^ 

The  tenant  had  the  right  to  defend  himself  upon  the 
the  king's  grand  assize,  and  so  prove  his  right  to  the  land. 

The  Mirror  says  :  "  In  personal  combat  for  felony  none 
can  combat  for  another,  but  in  actions  personal  it  is  lawful 
to  make  battle  by  their  bodies  or  by  loyal  witnesses." 
"The  battle  of  two  men  sufficeth  to  declare  the  truth,  so 
that   victory  is  holden  for  truth."  ^     "And  in  cases  where 

^  Bracton.  '  Reeves.     Ihacton. 

*  Beame's  Glanville,  p.  41. 

<  Mirror  of  Justices.     A.  Home,  trans.  1646,  pp.  155,  158,  159 


JUDICIAL  DUEL   IN  ENGLAND.  167 

battle  could  not  be  joined,  nor  was  there  any  witnes.3,  the 
people  in  person  acting  were  to  help  themselves  by  the 
miracle  of  God  in  this  manner,  as  if  the  defendant  were  a 
woman." 

Green,  in  his  History  of  England,  gives  a  striking  in- 
stance of  the  wager  of  battle  and  its  effects. 

"  At  Leicester,"  says  the  historian,  "  one  of  the  chief  aims  of  the 
burgesses  was  to  regain  their  old  English  jury  trial  (or  practice  of 
compurgation)  which  had  been  abolished  by  the  Earls  in  favour  of  the 
foreign  trial  by  duel.  It  chanced,  says  a  charter  of  the  time,  that  two 
kinsmen,  Nicholas  the  son  of  Aeon,  and  Geoffrey  the  son  of  Nicholas, 
waged  a  duel  about  a  certain  piece  of  land,  concerning  which  a  dis- 
pute had  arisen  between  them,  and  they  fought  from  the  first  to  the 
ninth  hour,  each  conquering  by  turns.  Then  one  of  them  fleeing  from 
the  other  till  he  came  to  a  certain  little  pit,  as  he  stood  on  the  brink  of 
the  pit  and  was  about  to  fall  therein,  his  kinsman  said  to  him,  '  Take 
care  of  the  pit,  turn  back  lest  thou  shouldest  fall  into  it.'  Thereat  so 
much  clamour  and  noise  was  made  by  the  bystanders  and  those  who 
were  sitting  around,  that  the  Earl  heard  these  clamours  as  far  off  as 
at  the  castle,  and  he  inquired  of  some  how  it  was  there  was  such  a 
clamour,  and  answer  was  made  to  him,  that  two  kinsmen  were  fight- 
ing about  a  certain  piece  of  ground,  and  that  one  had  fled  till  he 
reached  a  certain  little  pit,  and  that  as  he  stood  over  the  pit  and  was 
about  to  fall  into  it,  the  other  warned  him.  Then  the  townsmen  being 
moved  with  pity,  made  a  covenant  with  the  Earl  that  they  should  give 
him  the  pence  yearly  for  each  house  in  the  High  Street  that  had  a 
gable,  on  condition  that  he  should  grant  to  them  that  the  twenty- four 
jurors  who  were  in  Leicester  from  ancient  times,  should  from  that  time 
forward  discuss  and  decide  all  pleas  they  might  have  among  them- 
selves." 

The  customs  of  continental  Europe  varied  somewhat 
from  the  English  in  regard  to  the  judicial  combat  and 
ito  results,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  particularize  them. 
Throughout  the  whole  Christian  world,  for  many  centuries, 
the  personal  battle  was  the  final  decision  of  cases  of  law. 
Beginning  with  criminal  cases,  it  was  soon  transferred  to 
civil,  and  it  survived  in  parts  of  Europe,  at  least  nominally, 
to  the  present  century.     Its  great  power  in  the  Middle 


i68  GESTA    CHRISTL 

Ages  was  as  one  of  the  privileges  of  the  fighting  class,  the 
feudal  aristocracy,  while  it  appealed  to  the  superstition  of 
all  classes. 

In  the  struggle  everywhere  between  the  crown  and 
the  nobles,  and  in  the  growing  influence  of  Roman  law 
after  the  thirteenth  century,  this  was  upheld  as  one  of  the 
institutions  which  resisted  the  Roman  tendency  to  central- 
ization and  royal  encroachment.  Its  great  enemy  was  the 
new  spirit  which  Christianity  had  spread  abroad  in  the 
world,  and  which  thus  far  had  especially  imbued  the  com- 
mercial classes.  These  everywhere  opposed  trial  by  battle, 
and  one  of  the  privileges  granted  to  commercial  com- 
munities was  often  freedom  from  this  necessity.^  These 
communities  were  also  especially  influenced  by  Roman 
law,  and  in  the  Admiralty  law  which  they  derived  from  it, 
there  is  no  mention  of  trial  by  battle. 

The  Church  in  its  attitude  toward  this  barbarous  practice 
was  for  a  long  time  faithful  to  the  spirit  of  its  professed 
Leader.  Both  the  Councils  and  the  Popes  declared  boldly 
against  it.  In  1080  the  Synod  of  Lillebonne  adopted  a 
canon,  punishing  by  fine  any  of  the  clergy  who  should 
engage  in  these  combats  without  special  licence.  The 
practice  however  was  still  continued,  though  condemned  by 
Popes  Innocent  II.,  Alexander  III.,  and  Clement  III. 
Celestin  III.  even  deposed  the  clergy  who  had  engaged 
in  it,  while  all  these  prohibitions  were  confirmed  by 
Pope  Innocent  III.  and  the  Lateran  Council  of  1215, 
and  as  late  as  1492  the  Synod  of  Schwerin  published  a 
canon  prohibiting  Christian  burial  to  those  who  fell  in  such 
combats.^ 

^  Ferrum  .  .  .  pugnam,  aquam  vobis  non  judicabit  vel  judicari 
faciei.  (From  a  charter  granted  to  Bari  by  Roger,  King  of  NapleSi 
1 1 32  A.D.)     Muraiori,  quoted  by  Lea.     See  Muratori;  Ani.  Ital. 

■•'  Lea^  p.  148. 


CHRISTIAN  OPPOSITION.  169 

Louis  VII.,  in  granting  the  privilege  to  certain  of  the 
clergy  of  exemption  from  this  combat,  said  boldly,  "  We 
hold  that  these  wicked  habits  should  be  uprooted  from  the 
foundation."  ^  The  power  of  Christianity  tended  naturally 
to  do  away  with  this  relic  of  barbarism,  and  where  it  was 
freshly  introduced  at  once  affected  legislation. 

One  of  the  best  known  arguments  against  the  practice 
was  written  by  St.  Agobard,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  as 
early  as  826  A.D.,  in  a  treatise  entitled,  "  Liber  contra 
judicium  Dei."  ^  In  his  letter  to  the  Emperor  he  says, 
"  The  faithful  mind  must  not  suppose  that  Almighty  God 
desires  to  reveal  the  secret  things  of  man  by  hot  water  or 
hot  iron,  much  less  by  cruel  battle."  ^  It  is  a  foolish  and 
proud  presumption  to  suppose  that  the  Divine  judgments 
can  be  manifested  by  battle.*  "  Such  contests  are  strongly 
opposed  to  Christian  simplicity  and  piety  and  adverse  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Gospels."  ^  All  these  efforts  of  the 
Church  did  not  however  prevent  its  spread  through 
Europe.  The  first  code  in  which  the  judicial  duel  was  for- 
bidden was  among  the  most  warlike  tribes  of  the  German 
stock,  the  Norsemen  of  Iceland,  about  the  same  time  with 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  (ion  A.D.).  The  Danes 
soon  imitated  the  Icelanders.  Both  reforms  were  clear  fruits 
of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus.     Prince  Luitprand,  in  his  laws  of 

*  Lea^  p.  148.  Tenemus  pravas  consuetudines  fundetus  extirpari. 
Duellas  et  alias  purgationes  vulgares  prohibitae  sunt. 

^  See  St.  Agobardi,  Ep.  Ecc.  L.  opera.  Parisiis,  MDCV.  Ad  Im- 
peratorem  de  duello,  p.  103.  Contra  damnabilem  opinionem  putantium 
divini  judicii  veritatem  igne  vel  aquis  vel  conflictu  armorum  patefieri. 
(p.  287.) 

'  Ad  Ludov.  Imp.  Epist.  •*  De  Pace. 

*  Talia  certamina  vehementer  contraria  sunt  simplicitati  et  pietati 
Christianas  et  doctrinao  Evangelicas  nimis  adversa.     {^St.  Agob.,  c.  7.) 

Proinde  experimenta  hsec  appellata  fuere  Judicia  Dei  quasi  ad 
omniscientis  Judicium  controversia  deferretur  et  inde  justa  sententia 
expectanda  foret.     (Muratori,  De  Judiciis  Dei.) 


IT©  GESTA    CHRT^TL 

the  Lan_^obards,  ^  even  earlier  (712  A.D.),  protests  against 
this  settlement  of  disputes,  though  he  avows  himself  power- 
less to  prevent  it,  and  calls  the  law,  "  impiam  legem." 

Another  legal  measure  taken  against  it  was  by  the 
Emperor  Frederick  II.  in  123 1,  in  his  Neapolitan  code; 
be  pronounces  the  trial  by  battle  as  more  a  kind  of  fortune- 
telling  than  legal  proof,  and  equally  inconsistent  with 
common  law,  nature,  and  the  principles  of  equity.^ 

The  Emperor  Rudolph  of  Hapsburg,  in  his  charter  to 
the  Duchy  of  Styria,  in  1277,  forbade  the  wager  of  battle. 
Other  princes  also  prohibited  it.  Alfonso  the  Wise  of 
Castile,  in  his  celebrated  code,  Siete  Partidas,  stigmatized 
the  combat  as  an  "  effort  to  tempt  the  Lord  our  God."  ^ 

The  Duke  of  Burgundy,  Philip  le  Bon,  abolished  the 
wager  of  battle,  and  in  his  code  of  1459  there  is  no  mention 
of  it.  In  Hungary  it  was  prohibited  in  1492,  and  in  Italy 
in  1505.* 

The  Christian  spirit,  as  affecting  the  imperial  Roman 
code  in  regard  to  gladiators,  worked  upon  the  Middle 
Ages  with  respect  to  the  "  champions  "  employed  in  these 
judicial  combats.  All  the  contempt  and  disabilities  thrown 
by  the  Christianized  Roman  law  on  the  former,  were 
transferred  by  those  following  Roman  legislation  to  the 
hired  fighters  in  these  duels.  ^  They  were  held  incapable 
of  being  witnesses  or  of  succeeding  to  property,  and  even 
their  children  were  disgraced. 

'  If  by  respect  for  the  usages  of  our  Langobard  realm  we  cannot 
forbid  the  judgment  of  God,  it  none  the  less  appears  to  us  uncer- 
tain, having  learnt  that  many  persons  have  lost  their  causes  unjustly 
by  an  impious  combat.     (Quoted  by  Lea,  Lex  Long.,  p.  63.) 

^  Non  tarn  vera  probatio  quamqujedam  divinatio  .  .  .  quae  na- 
tur£e  non  consonans,  a  jure  communi  deviat,  nequitae  rationibus  non 
consensit.     Lea,  p.  149. 

•  Que  quiere  tentava  Dios  nuestro  Senor. 

*  /^a.  6  Ibid. 


APPEAL   OF  MURDER.  17T 

All  these  influences,  however,  were  slow  in  uprooting 
this  unreasonable  practice  among  the  nations  of  Europe, 
It  endured  in  Russia  till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  was  not  abolished  in  England  in  civil  cases 
till  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  In  1571,  in  order  to  determine 
a  disputed  title  to  real  estate,  Westminster  Hall  was  forced 
to  adjourn  to  a  duelling  ground  at  Tothill  Fields,  "  not 
without  great  mental  disturbance  of  the  learned  lawyers " 
(non  sine  magna  jurisconsultorum  perturbatione).  All  the 
forms  of  combat  were  passed  through,  but  the  contest  was 
compromised.^ 

In  criminal  cases,  a  man  indicted  for  a  capital  offence, 
was  allowed  to  confess  his  crime  and  to  charge  any  one  as 
accomplice.  This  appeal  was  usually  decided  by  wager  of 
battle.  In  1539  there  was  legislation  on  this,  and  even  in 
the  seventeenth  century  instances  occurred  of  the  judicial 
duel  ;  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  at  the  close  of  the  century, 
speaks  of  it  as  "  an  unusual  trial  at  this  day."  Sir 
Thomas  Smith,  as  late  as  near  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  (1570-77),  says  of  the  judgment  by  battle:  "This 
at  this  time  is  not  much  used,  partly  because  of  long  time 
the  Pope  and  the  clergy,  to  whom  in  time  past  we  were 
much  subject,  always  cryed  against  it  as  a  thing  danmable 
and  unlawful,"  and  partly,  as  he  explains,  because  of  the 
natural  change  in  manners  and  customs.  "  But,"  he  adds, 
"I  could  not  learn  that  it  was  ever  abrogated."^  And  of 
the  appeal  to  battle  in  murder  cases,  he  says :  "  The  Popes 
of  Rome,  and  men  of  the  Church  who  of  long  time  have 
had  dominion  in  our  consciences,  and  would  bring  t^Mngs 
to  a  more  moderation,  have  much  detested  this  kind  of 
triall  and  judgment     ,     .    .     This  kind  of  trial!  of  long 

*  Spell.  Gloss.,  p.  T03. 

2  The  Coinmowi'calih  of  England,  1589,  p.  100, 


172  GESTA    CHRIST!, 

time  hath  not  been  used.  .  .  .  Nevertheless,  the  lav 
remaineth  still  and  is  not  abolished." 

In  1775,  one  of  the  grievances  of  the  American  colonies 
was  being  deprived  by  English  legislation  of  the  right  of 
wager  of  battle  in  criminal  cases  ;  that  is,  a  man  acquitted 
of  a  charge  of  murder  could  be  again  prosecuted  by  the 
nearest  relative,  and  the  question  was  to  be  determined  by 
the  judicial  duel.^  The  English  Liberals  denounced,  in 
the  strongest  terms,  this  oppression  of  the  colonists. 
Dunning,  afterwards  Lord  Ashburton,  described  the 
appeal  for  murder  as  "  that  great  pillar  of  the  constitu- 
tion." "  It  is  called,"  he  said,  "  a  remnant  of  barbarism 
and  Gothicism.  The  whole  of  our  constitution,  for  aught 
I  know,  is  Gothic,  Are  you  then  to  destroy  every  part 
of  that  Gothic  constitution,  and  set  up  a  Macaroiii  one 
instead," 

Burke  said,  "  If  there  is  an  appeal  for  rape  and  robbery, 
you  ought  to  have  one  for  murder.  ...  I  allow  that 
judicial  combat  was  part  of  this  appeal — which  was  super- 
stition and  barbarism  to  the  last  degree.  Yet  I  cannot 
consent  that  the  subject  should  be  dealt  with  piecemeal." 
Wedderburn,  in  reply,  said  on  behalf  of  the  ministry  : 
*'  They  allow  that  the  appeal  for  murder  is  only  an  effort 
for  a  private  revenge,  that  it  may  lawfully  be  stopped  at 
any  time  by  the  appellant  on  the  receipt  of  a  sum  of 
money,  and  that  if  it  proceeds  the  appellor  or  the  accused, 
by  throwing  down  his  glove,  is  entitled  to  have  his  guilt  or 
innocence  determined  by  a  deadly  combat,"  etc.,  etc.  The 
clause  objected  to  in  the  Bill  was  subsequently  withdrawn 
by  the  ministry.  The  appeal  for  murder  was  attempted 
also  previously  (1699),  in  the  case  of  Lord  Cowper's  brothen 
but  was  quashed  on  account  of  informality.     Lord  Holt 

*  Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Chancellors  of  England,  vol.  vi.  p.  112, 


WAGER  OF  BATTLE  IN  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  173 

declared  it  "  a  noble  badge  of  the  liberties  of  an  English- 
man." 1 

In  1818,  in  England,  a  probable  murderer,  acquitted 
on  a  jury  trial,  was  challenged  by  a  brother  of  the  girl 
murdered,  when  he  pleaded  "  not  guilty,  and  I  am  ready 
to  defend  the  same  by  my  body."  The  Chief  Justice 
sustained  his  right  to  this  mode  of  trial,  and  but  for  the 
challenger's  withdrawing,  the  world  would  have  seen  a 
wager  of  battle  in  the  nineteenth  century  before  the  Lord 
Chief  Justice  of  England. 

In  the  next  year,  by  Act  59  Geo.  Ill,  cap.  46,"  this 
relic  of  ante-Christian  barbarism  was  abolished,  and  law 
finally  substituted  for  force  between  individuals  in  Great 
Britain.^  The  wager  of  battle  or  appeal  of  murder  appears 
even  to  have  been  inherited  in  American  legislation,'^  and 
Lea  states  that  it  probably  exists  legally  in  several  of  the 
United  States. 

The  reflection  of  the  reader  will  no  doubt  be  of  wonder 
that  such  a  barbaric  folly  and  abuse  should  have  lasted 
so  long  under  even  the  apparent  reign  of  Christianity 
and  right  leason.  But  in  all  matters  connected  with  the 
instincts  of  pugnacity  and  the  fiercer  passions,  the  teachings 
of  Christ  work  very  slowly.  They  are  just  beginning  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  their  appropriate  and  lasting  work. 
As  we  shall  show  later,  their  influence  is  only  now  felt  on 
the  relations  of  nations  and  the   passions  of  war.      The 

'  Campbell,  vol  iv.  p.  275. 

2  All  appeals  of  treason,  murder,  felony  or  other  offences  shall 
cease,  determine  and  become  void,  and  become  entirely  void,  and  be 
utterly  abolished,  and  in  any  point  of  right,  the  tenant  shall  not  be 
received  to  wage  battel  nor  shall  issue  be  joined  nor  trial  be  had  by 
battel  in  any  writ  of  right.     (59  Geo.  III.  c.  46.) 

^  Lea,  Campbell,  Reeves,  and  others  ;  the  case  of  Ashford  v, 
Thornton. 

♦  Siat.  of  S.  Carol.,  vol.  ii.  p.  715,  note. 


tU  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

\vager  of  private  battle  is  perhaps  only  a  shade  more  un- 
reasonable  and  uncliristian  than  public  battle.  Time  has 
given  a  slow  victory  of  this  Faith  in  one  ;  it  will  yet  bring 
about  a  like  success  in  the  other. 

The  Ordeal.  —  The  Carlovingian  Capitularies,  which 
expressed  the  most  intelligent  legal  judgments  of  the  early 
Middle  Ages,  make  this  formal  and  solemn  statement : 
"  In  doubtful  cases  our  opinion  should  be  reserved  for 
the  judgment  of  God.  What  men  certainly  know  they 
reserve  for  their  own,  what  they  are  ignorant  of,  for 
the  Divine  judgment ;  since  he  cannot  be  condemned  by 
human  examination,  whom  God  hath  reserved  for  His 
own  judgment."^  The  "judgment  of  God"  was  the 
famous  ordeal  by  fire,  water,  red-hot  iron,  the  cross  and 
the  Eucharist.  It  was  no  doubt  an  early  barbarian  prac- 
tice, which  survived  after  Europe  had  become  civilized. 
Almost  all  nations  have  employed  the  ordeal  in  a  primitive 
stage  of  their  development.  In  various  forms,  it  endured 
in  some  civilized  countries  till  the  last  and  the  present 
century. 

The  early  history  of  the  Church  is  consistent  in  its  oppo- 
sition to  the  practice.  Christianity,  as  cultivating  brotherly 
love  and  the  spirit  of  justice,  tended  to  weaken  the  power 
of  this  custom.  As  early  as  the  sixth  century,  Avitus,  the 
Archbishop  of  Vienne,  remonstrated  with  Gundobald  on 
account  of  admitting  the  ordeal  in  the  Burgundian  code  ; 
and  in  the  ninth  century,  St.  Agobard,  Archbishop  of 
Lyons,  in  a  famous  treatise,  attacked  the  whole  system.  ^ 
Leo  IV.  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  condemned  it 
in  a  letter  to  the  English  bishops,  and  many  succeeding 

'  In  ambiguis,  Dei  judicio  reservitur  scntentia.  Quod  certe  agnos* 
cunt  suo,  quod  nesciunt,  divino  reservunt  judicio,  etc  Carlov.  Cap, 
lib.  \li.  c.  239,  quoted  by  Lea. 

'  St,  Agobai  di  opera,  previously  cited. 


OPPOSITION  OF  CHURCH.  175 

pontiffs  opposed  it.  ^  Great  numbers,  however,  of  the 
clergy  defended  the  practice,  and  it  received  the  approval 
of  many  synods  and  councils.  The  ordeal,  by  the  religious 
ceremonies  accompanying  it,  was  too  powerful  a  help  to 
the  Church  to  be  easily  abandoned  ;  and  bigotry  and  super- 
stition found  in  it  a  ready  means  of  punishing  heretics 

The  Popes,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
twelfth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth,  con- 
demned it  in  the  strongest  terms.  Alexander  III.  with 
his  whole  apostolic  authority  forbade  it.  ^  Tlie  Fourth 
Council  of  Lateran  (1 2 15)  prohibited  the  employment  of 
any  ecclesiastic  ceremonies  in  such  trials.  In  1200  Philip 
Augustus,  in  bestowing  certain  privileges  on  the  students 
of  the  University  of  Paris,  made  a  condition  that  a  citizen 
accused  of  assaulting  a  student  shall  not  be  allowed  to 
defend  himself  by  the  duel  or  water  ordeal.^  In  the  third 
year  of  Henry  III.  of  England,^  when  so  many  reforms 
were  begun,  an  order  was  issued  to  the  justices  not  to  try 
persons  charged  with  robbery,  murder  or  similar  crimes,  by 
fire  and  water,  but  to  keep  them  in  prison  under  safe  cus- 
tody, so  as  not  to  endanger  them  in  life  and  limb,  seeing 
that  the  judgment  of  fire  and  water  is  forbidden  by  the 
Church  of  Rome.  ^  The  canons  which  especially  are 
thought  by  Glanville  and  others  to  have  abolished  ordeal 
in  England,  are  those  forbidding  man  to  tempt  the  Lord 
his  God.  ^ 

Matthew  of  Westminster,  in  1250,  speaks  of  ordeal  by 
fire  and  water  as  abolished  ;  and  Bracton  does  not  allude 

'  Lea,  p.  267. 

'  Imo  apostolica  auctoritate  proliibemus  firmissime.  Alex.  Ill 
Ep  ,  74-     (Quoted  by  Lea.) 

'  Lea.  *  Peeves. 

*    Spcllman,  Gloss. 

"  Ch.  xiv.  Cum  sit  contra  preceptum  Domini,  non  tentabis  Dcminuni 
Deum  tuum.     {Dec,  part  2.) 


176  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

to  it  as  still  practised.  Throughout  the  same  century  it 
was  gradually  done  away  with  in  Italy,  Iceland,  Norway, 
and  Sweden.  In  France  it  fell  into  disuse  about  the  same 
time ;  but  in  Germany  the  superstition  of  the  people 
resisted  the  mandates  of  the  Church,  and  even  in  the 
fourteenth  century  the  practice  was  not  uncommon.  In 
Spain,  the  celebrated  code  of  Alfonso  the  Wise  (1260)  had 
expressly  prohibited  it;  but  even  in  1322  a  Church  Council 
was  obliged  to  threaten  with  excommunication  all  engaged 
in  administering  this  test.  ^  Lea,  in  his  admirable  work 
from  which  we  have  quoted  so  often,  says  that  the  well- 
known  Muratori  affirms  his  belief  in  the  ordeal,  and  that  it 
was  common  in  Transylvania  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  in  the  eighteenth  century  in  West  Prussia. 

The  treatment  of  witches  in  the  early  history  of  the 
United  States  must  have  contained  a  large  element  of 
the  belief  in  the  supernatural  "judgment  of  God."  Even 
in  1 81 5  there  was  a  trial  for  witchcraft  in  Belgium,  and  in 
1836  the  population  of  Bela,  near  Dantzic,  twice  plunged 
an  old  woman  accused  of  being  a  sorceress,  into  the  sea, 
and,  as  she  rose,  she  was  pronounced  guilty  and  beaten  to 
death.  2 

Other  causes  besides  the  influence  of  the  Church  or  the 
spread  of  Christian  ideas  tended  to  remove  this  abuse — 
the  revived  influence  of  the  Roman  law,  and  the  spirit  of 
the  mercantile  communes  and  commercial  leagues,  who 
were  more  imbued  with  correct  principles  of  evidence,  less 
affected  by  superstition,  and  more  inspired  by  religion. 
The  early  codes  of  commercial  law  make  no  reference  to 
ordeal.  * 

*  Du  Cange,  Ferrum  candens.     Lea.     Muratori,  Ital.  Aniiq. 
3  Lea. 

•  I  desire  to  make  especial  acknowledgments  for  the  assistance  I 
have  derived  in  these  chapters  from  LeaV,  admirable  work  on  Super- 
ttition  and  Force. 


ABOLITION  OF  ORDEAL.  177 

The  abolition  of  ordeal  is  not  one  of  the  most  undisputed 
victories  of  the  Christian  religion.  We  can  only  say  with 
confidence,  that  as  this  Faith  imbues  men  with  benevolence 
and  the  desire  to  render  to  all  their  due,  the  injustice, 
cruelty,  and  absurdity  of  such  means  of  arriving  at  truth 
become  more  apparent. 


N 


CHAPTER  XV. 

TORTURE. 

The  Roman  law,  in  recognising  one  system  of  injustice, 

permitted  of  necessity  the  cruel  and  unjust  proceedings 
legally  connected  with  it.  Slavery  was  assumed  and  ac- 
knowledged as  legal,  and  with  it,  the  torture  to  exact  the 
truth  from  one  who  was  in  the  view  of  the  law  scarcely  a 
human  being.  Even  the  Stoical  jurists  allow  torture  to  a 
slave  who  is  a  witness.  But  such  an  injustice  once  suffered 
to  exist  would  be  easily  propagated  to  other  classes.  It 
was  first  applied  to  freemen  suspected  of  crimes  against 
the  State  or  the  emperor  ;  and,  under  the  imperial  legisla- 
tion of  Rome,  was  employed  against  many  offencesof  free- 
born  Romans.  Still,  under  the  Roman  practice,  there  were 
many  safeguards  for  the  accused.  The  plaintiff  was  obliged 
to  inscribe  himself  formally,  and  was  exposed  to  the  lex 
talionis,  or  reprisals,  if  he  failed  to  prove  his  charge. 
Under  Constantine,  a  person  accused  of  treason,  whatever 
his  rank,  was  liable  to  torture,  but  accusers  and  informers, 
if  they  could  not  prove  their  charge,  were  equally  liable 
to  this  penalty.  These  provisions  were  preserved  by 
Justinian. 1  Even  freemen  were  tortured  as  witnesses,  and 
so  enlightened  a  ruler  as  Justinian  could  order  a  rod  to 
persons  suspected  of  false  witness,  in  order  to  extract 
the  truth.     It   is  certainly  one  of  the  extraordinary  per- 

»  13  Theod.  Cod.,  ix.  8. 
178 


TORTURE.  179 

versities  of  the  human  reason,  that  for  so  many  centuries 
in  Europe,  alike  under  Roman  law  and  the  Christian 
Church,  the  innocent  could  be  exposed  to  frightful  pains 
in  order  to  obtain  evidence ;  and  the  accused,  who  might 
be  innocent,  were  given  up  to  fearful  agonies  to  com- 
pel a  confession,  which  might  be  the  result  of  fear  or 
pain.  This  savage  procedure  was  unknown  to  the  great 
race  related  to  the  European  races — the  Hindoos — and 
was  not  a  part  of  the  code  of  the  people  who,  through 
Christianity,  have  so  much  influenced  modern  progress 
the  Jews.  The  northern  barbarians,  owing  to  their  sense 
of  individual  independence,  did  not  usually  permit  the 
torture  of  freemen,  but  only  that  of  slaves  ;  and  then  under 
strict  conditions.  The  wager  of  battle,  the  compurgators' 
oath,  and  the  ordeal  took  the  place  of  torture,  as  a  means 
of  obtaining  truth.  The  Gothic  tribes,  who  were  more 
influenced  by  Roman  legislation,  early  adopted  the  prac- 
tice, though  with  many  of  the  Roman  protections  for  the 
accused. 

Christianity  in  its  essential  spirit  was  utterly  opposed  to 
such  a  cruel  and  unjust  practice.  One  of  the  wisest  kings 
of  Europe  expressed  in  his  code  the  foundation  principle 
of  this  Faith,  when  he  said,  "  The  person  of  man  is  the 
noblest  thing  on  earth."  ^  Yet  even  Alfonso  the  Wise  was 
obliged  to  admit  torture  in  his  legislation,  though  he  modi- 
fied its  effects  by  provisions  which  were  afterwards  imitated 
throughout  Europe.  No  confession  under  torture  was  held 
technically  valid  ;  the  victim  was  sent  back  to  prison  ;  he 
was  again  brought  before  the  judges  ;  if  he  persisted,  he 
was  condemned  ;  if  he  recanted,  he  was  again  tortured,  and 
these  steps  were  repeated  ;  the  accused  never  being  con- 
victed except  by  free  confession.^     Even  after  that,  if  the 

'  La  persona  del  home  es  la  mas  noble  cosa  del  mundo.    Sieti 
Partidas,  '^  Lea. 


i8o  GESTA   CHRISTL 

judges  found  reason  to  consider  the  confession  an  effect  of 
fear  or  pain,  he  might  be  acquitted. 

The  history  of  the  early  Church,  when  perhaps  the 
teachings  of  Christ  were  fresher  to  the  minds  of  men,  is 
full  of  instances  of  opposition  to  this  cruel  practice.  But 
gradually,  as  the  study  of  the  Roman  law  revived  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  later,  as  the  spirit  of  bigotry  in- 
creased, torture,  and  all  the  dark  accompanyi:ng  practices 
were  borrowed  from  the  old  code,  and  employed  by  the 
Roman  Church  in  the  processes  of  the  Inquisition.  Under 
this  new  spirit  of  persecution  they  became  tenfold  worse 
than  they  had  ever  been  under  Roman  law.  For  centuries, 
the  very  light  of  justice  passed  away  under  the  shadow  of 
the  Inquisition.  Men  were  tortured  on  the  feeblest  sus- 
picions ;  all  the  maxims  of  Roman  equity  were  forgotten  ; 
their  confessions  were  allowed  to  implicate  others,  and 
often  they  charged  themselves  when  innocent,  to  escape 
further  pain.  Agents  were  permitted  to  enter  their  prison- 
cells  to  worm  out  their  confidence,  and  even  judges  falsely 
promised  them  mercy  to  win  a  confession. 

The  following  were  some  of  the  tortures  habitually  used 
in  Europe  for  hundreds  of  years :  "  The  strappado,  so 
common  in  Italy,  and  which  is  yet  forbidden  under  Roman 
law  ;     .  .     the  vigils  of  Spain,  which  oblige  a  man  to 

support  himself  by  sheer  muscular  effort  for  seven  hours, 
to  avoid  sitting  on  a  pointed  iron  which  pierces  him  with 
an  insufferable  pain  ;  iron  stools  heated  to  redness  on  which 
we  place  poor  half-witted  women  accused  of  witchcraft,  ex- 
hausted by  frightful  imprisonment,  rolling  from  their  dark 
and  filthy  dungeons,  loaded  with  chains,  fleshless  and  half- 
dead,  and  we  pretend  that  the  human  frame  can  resist 
these  devilish  practices,  and  that  the  confessions  which  ouf 
wretched  victims  make,  are  true."  ^ 

^  Nicholas,  Diss.  M  rale  etjurid.  sur  la  Torture.    (Quoted  by  Le&X 


THE  STRAPPADO.  i8r 

The  strappado,  to  which  alhision  is  here  made,  was  a 
species  of  torture  used  to  extract  the  truth  fiom  witnesses 
or  accused  persons.  The  hands  were  tied  behind  the 
back,  with  a  piece  of  iron  between  them  ;  a  cord  was 
fastened  to  the  wrists  by  which,  with  a  pulley,  the 
unfortunate  person  was  hoisted  from  the  ground  with  a 
weight  of  125  lbs.  fastened  to  his  feet.  In  extraordinary 
cases  the  weight  was  increased  to  250  lbs.  When  the 
victim  was  raised  to  a  sufficient  height,  he  was  dropped 
with  a  jerk  which  dislocated  the  joints,  and  this  was 
repeated  three  times.  The  most  agonising  and  efficacious 
of  all  torture  was  considered  to  be  enforced  sleeplessness. 
The  person  was  placed  between  two  jailors,  who  slept  in 
alternate  periods,  but  kept  the  unhappy  victim  awake  for 
several  days  and  nights. 

In  applying  torture  to  those  suspected  of  witchcraft, 
one  judge  (according  to  Nicholas)  boasted  of  despatching 
nine  hundred  victims  in  his  district  in  fifteen  years ;  and 
another  in  the  diocese  of  Como  burnt  one  thousand  persons 
in  a  year.  The  cruelty  and  arbitrary  character  of  the 
system  of  torture  reached  such  a  degree  in  Europe,  that 
intelligent  persons  decided,  if  chance  should  expose  them 
to  any  suspicion,  they  would  at  once  admit  every  charge, 
preferring  a  speedy  death  to  these  long-continued  agonies. 

Under  the  German  Code  after  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  rule  of  the  Roman  law  was  followed,  of  beginning 
with  the  weakest  in  torture.  If  husband  and  wife  were  to 
be  tortured,  they  commenced  with  the  wife.  Von  Rosbach 
warns  the  tribunals  that  their  greatest  fault  was  in  looking 
only  at  the  testimony  adverse  to  the  accused,  and  that 
they  "  used  torture  as  though  nature  had  created  the  feel- 
ings of  prisoners  to  be  lacerated  at  will."  ^ 

As  soon  as  a  charge  was  made,  the  judges  began  by 
*  Quoted  bj  Lea. 


i82  GESTA    CHRISTI 

torturing  all  who  were  suspected,  without  waiting  to  ascer-" 
tain  if  any  crime  had  really  been  committed.  The  accused 
generally  did  not  see  a  copy  of  the  accusation ;  often  was 
not  allowed  to  be  heard  in  defence,  and  was  tortured  at 
once  after  the  adverse  evidence  was  heard.  Even  the  right 
of  appeal  was  evaded,  by  the  judges  sending  the  accused 
to  the  rack  without  a  preliminary  formal  order.  The  rule 
prevailed  that  torture  should  not  be  so  prolonged  as  to 
endanger  life  and  limb,  but,  in  fact,  the  unfortunate  victim 
was  often  crippled  for  life  under  a  false  accusation.  Von 
Boden  says,  that  the  devil  himself  could  not  invent  any 
worse  torment  for  the  human  body  than  these  judges 
often  used  on  the  innocent.^  The  judge  himself  was  obliged 
to  be  present  during  the  torture,  and  naturally  grew  callous 
to  the  misery  he  inflicted.  He  was  liable  to  indictment 
if  the  prisoner  did  not  confess,  so  that  every  motive  urged 
him  to  torment  the  miserable  sufferers.  It  is  said  that  in 
these  refinements  of  cruelty  over  nine  hundred  different 
instruments  for  inflicting  pain  were  invented  and  used. 
Torture  was  permitted  even  after  conviction,  to  prevent 
appeals  ;  and  if  the  unhappy  person  asserted  his  innocence 
at  the  place  of  execution,  he  was  hurried  back  to  the  rack 
again. 

One  candid  magistrate  of  Milan  is  reported  by  Nicholas 
to  have  tested  the  system,  by  killing  a  favourite  mule  and 
allowing  the  accusation  to  fall  upon  a  servant.  The  man 
denied  the  offence,  was  put  to  the  rack,  and  confessed  ;  and 
subsequently,  after  the  torture,  persisted  in  the  confession. 
The  judge,  it  is  said,  resigned  his  office  and  became  a 
cardinal. 

In  France,  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  all  the 

'  Sic  adhiberi  soteant  ut  diabolum  ipsum  asperius  quid  quo  corpori 
humano  in  hac  vita  noceat,  excogitaie  posse  dubium  sit.  (Quoted  by 
Lea. 


TORTURE.  183 

worst  accompaniments  of  this  cruel  practice  were  in  con- 
tinual use  ;  the  secret  investigation  of  criminal  cases  ;  the 
separate  and  secret  examination  of  witnesses  ;  the  prisoner 
not  being  informed  of  the  accusation  against  him,  nor 
allowed  an  opportunity  of  preparing  a  defence.  The  prin- 
ciple of  French  legislation  in  this  matter  in  the  sixteenth 
century  being,  as  Lea  well  puts  it,  that  it  were  better  that 
one  hundred  innocent  persons  should  suffer,  than  that  one 
guilty  one  should  escape. 

The  old  maxim  of  Roman  law,  that  no  one  who  had 
confessed  his  guilt  should  be  examined  as  to  the  guilt  of 
another  accused,  was  forgotten,  and  the  new  method  was 
the  application  of  the  rack  to  compel  a  confession  as  to  the 
guilt  of  others.  This  continued  even  under  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV.  Silence  under  the  agony  inflicted  was  not 
considered  evidence  of  innocence  ;  so  that  a  man  not  found 
guilty  after  torture,  could  be  punished  for  some  other  of- 
fence of  which  he  had  not  been  convicted.  This  horrible 
condition  of  legislation  endured  in  France  till  the  eighteenth 
century. 

In  Spain,  as  might  have  been  expected,  this  barbarous 
practice  and  all  the  abuses  of  secret  inquest  had  their 
especial  seat.  The  dreadful  procedure  of  the  Inquisition 
was  transferred  to  secular  legislation.  Torture  was  adopted 
even  on  charges  of  theft  or  counterfeiting,  and  for  all 
weighty  offences.  Evidence  sufticient  to  justify  it  was  con- 
sidered to  lie  in  common  report,  or  in  unexplained  absence 
before  accusation,  or  in  prevarication  at  examination,  or 
even  in  silence  and  pallor.^  The  magistrates  went  so  far 
as  to  employ  the  lot  or  divination  to  obtain  proofs  suf- 
cient  to  justify  to  their  minds  the  rack  or  the  strappado. 
Witnesses  were  not  spared  either  in  civil  or  criminal  cases. 

*  Deinde  a  pallore  et  similibus  oritur  judicium  ad  torturam  secun- 
dum.     (yoii  Rosbach)     Lea,  p.  358. 


i84  GESTA    CHRISTi 

In  general,  torture  was  seldom  practised  in  their  early 
history  by  the  nations  where  jury  trial  prevailed  and 
evidence  was  open,  and  where  Roman  law  had  little  or  no 
influence.  In  the  Danish  and  Swedish  Codes,  from  the 
fifteenth  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  centuries,  when  this 
cruel  process  was  so  common  in  Europe,  it  is  not  men- 
tioned. It  does  however  appear  very  early  in  the  Icelandic 
Code,  but  seems  afterwards  to  have  fallen  into  disuse. 

Torture  in  England. — It  is  the  boast  of  the  common  law 
of  England,  that  this  practice  was  never  recognised  in  its 
provisions.  Among  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  ordeal,  the 
wager  of  battle,  and  the  gradual  growth  of  the  jury  took 
its  place. 

By  the  laws  of  Henry  I.  it  is  laid  down  that  no  credit 
is  to  be  given  to  a  confession  about  another's  guilt,  and 
that  a  confession  extorted  by  fear  or  fraud  is  invalid.^  It 
is  thought  that  the  expression  in  Magna  Charta,  "  No 
freeman  may  be  arrested  or  imprisoned  except  by  legal 
judgment  of  his  peers,"  -  may  refer  to  this  power  of  magis- 
trates and  kings,  so  freely  exercised  on  the  Continent  at 
that  time. 

In  the  fourteenth  century,  this  cruelty  was  almost 
unknown  in  legal  proceedings  in  England.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  York  states  this  publicly,  and  asks  in  a  letter, 
which  has  been  preserved,  what  he  shall  do  in  regard  to 
the  examination  of  certain  knights  templar. 

Yet  torture  was  occasionally  employed  during  suc- 
ceeding reigns,  and  gradually,  as  the  royal  prerogative  was 
strengthened,  it  gained  ground.  Under  Henry  VIII.  it  was 
held  that  a  royal  warrant  justified  the  use  of  this  means 
of  investigation   and  of  secret  inquest.     Arguments  were 

*  Nemini  de  se  confesso  super  alienum  crimen,  credatur ;  confessia 
per  metum  vel  per  fraudem  extorta,  ron  valet"    (Z,,  Hen.  /.,  5,  16.) 

*  C.  XXX. 


TORTURE  IN  ENGLAND.  185 

made  against  its  practice  during  Elizabeth's  reign,  but  still 
it  was  held  that  the  royal  command  rendered  it  legal.  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  says  of  torture  in  his  time  (1570):  "Like- 
wise torment  of  question  which  is  used  by  the  order  of 
the  civil  law  and  custom  of  other  countries,  to  put  a 
malefactor  to  excessive  paine,  to  make  him  confesse  of 
himselfe,  or  of  his  fellows  or  complices,  is  not  used  in  Eng- 
land ;  it  is  taken  for  servile.  .  .  The  nature  of  English- 
men is  to  neglect  death,  but  to  abide  no  torment.  .  . 
Likewise  confession  by  torment  is  esteemed  for  nothing."  ^ 
Even  Lord  Bacon,  at  as  late  a  period  as  161 9,  recom- 
mended its  use  to  King  James.  As  was  the  experience 
in  other  countries,  this  method  of  examination  was  trans- 
ferred from  cases  of  treason  and  of  offences  against  the 
State,  to  ordinary  offences — even  to  the  examination  of 
persons  accused  of  theft  and  horse-stealing. 

After  1640,  pain  as  a  means  of  investigation  was  never 
applied  to  those  accused  of  political  offences.  The  Rebel- 
lion put  an  end  to  such  practices. 

In  Scotland  the  use  of  torture  began  somewhat  late, 
after  the  fifteenth  century,  but  it  was  applied  fearfully, 
especially  in  the  trials  for  witchcraft  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries.  It  was  not  abolished  in  that  coun- 
try till  after  the  Union,  in  1709.^ 

TJie  Opposition  of  the  Church. — As  we  stated  before,  the 
Church  in  its  early  history  was  consistent  with  its  doctrines 
in  opposing  this  cruelty  and  injustice.  Under  the  Mero- 
vingian line,  torture  was  only  exceptionally  employed, 
except  against  scorcerers.  A  Church  Council  in  587  A.D, 
forbade  by  special  decree  every  elder  or  deacon  from  being 


*  Commonwealth  of  England  1589,  p.  loa    See  also  Jardine  On  Usi 
of  Torture,  etc. 
2  Lea. 


1 86  GESIA    CHRIST!. 

present  at  the  infliction  of  this  pain.  ^  Another  canon 
(585  A.D.)  prohibited  any  of  the  clergy  from  even  behold- 
ing these  agonies.  ^  A  prominent  Bishop,  Hildebert,  in 
1 125,  in  a  letter  to  his  clergy,  says,  "To  torment  criminals. 
or  to  extort  confession  by  torture,  is  not  a  part  of  the 
discipline  of  the  Church."^  The  early  Popes  were  not  be- 
hindhand in  their  denunciation  of  the  practice.  Gregory  L 
in  the  sixth  century  speaks  with  contempt  of  a  confes- 
sion where  the  innocent  are  compelled  to  avow  them- 
selves guilty.*  Nicholas  I.  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Bulga- 
rians, says  that  this  is  a  process  which  no  divine  or  human 
law  can  approve  of,  "  for  a  confession  ought  not  to  be 
unwilling  but  spontaneous."  ^  "  Abandon  all  such  prac- 
tices," is  his  command.  Ivo  of  Chartres,  in  the  beginning 
of  the  twelfth  century,  proclaimed  that  the  confession  of 
the  clergy,  whatever  they  were  accused  of,  should  always 
be  spontaneous,  not  forced.  ^ 

Fifty  years  later,  Gratian  proclaims  that  confessions 
must  not  be  obtained  by  torments.  '^ 

This  cruel  practice  was  not  adopted  by  most  of  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe  till  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries. 

*  Non  licet  presbytero  nee  diacono  ad  trepalium  ubi  rei  torquentur 
stare.     Cone.  Aufiss.,  con.  33. 

"  Ad  locum  examinationis  reorum  nullus  clericorum  accedat.  Cone. 
Mat.^  ii.  I.    {Lea.) 

^  Reos  tormentis  afficere  vel  suppliciis  extorquere  confessionem 
...     est  non  ecclesia;  disciplina.     {Hild.,  Ep.  xxx.     Lea.) 

*  .  .  .  noxios  se  fated  cogantur  etiam  innoxii.  Greg.,  lib.  viii. 
Ep.  I,  3  c. 

*  Quam  rem  nee  divina  lex  nee  humana  prorsus  admittit,  cum  non 
juvita  sed  spontanea  debet  esse  confcssio.  (Ep.  97,  86.)  .  .  Rclin- 
quite  itaque  talia.     (Quoted  by  Lea.) 

*  Ministrorum  confcssio  non  sit  extorta  sed  spontanea.  (Quoted  by 
Lea) 

'  Confcssio  ciuciatibus  extorquenda  non  est.  Dec.  ervs,  xv.  6,  1 
(Sec  Lea.) 


THE   CHURCH  AND    TORTURE.  187 

Italy,  which  was  the  centre  of  Romaxi  ideas,  was  the 
earhest  to  employ  it  in  obtaining  evidence,  and  the  last 
to  abandon  it.  Frederick  II.  in  his  Neapolitan  Code 
(1231)  is  said  to  have  substituted  torture  for  ordeal  in  judi- 
cial trials.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  Church  began  to 
drift  far  from  the  principles  of  its  Master,  and  to  be  imbued 
with  a  spirit  of  cruel  bigotry.  The  Inquisition  accepted 
torture  and  secret  investigation  as  its  appropriate  imple- 
ments; and  Pope  Innocent  IV.  ordered  this  process  in  the 
examinations  for  heresy.  The  influence  of  the  Inquisition 
on  secular  law  was  widespread  and  most  disastrous. 

Two  causes  began  now  to  spread  abroad  this  cruel  pro- 
ceeding :  one,  the  revived  study  of  Roman  law,  and  the 
consequent  desire  by  the  Royalist  party  through  Europe  to 
restore  to  imperial  and  kingly  power  its  privileges — among 
them  the  rignt  to  obtain  evidence  by  inflicting  pain — and 
the  other  this  terrible  anti-christian  spirit  of  the  Church 
and  the  Inquisition. 

The  spirit  of  humanity  taught  by  Christ,  wherever  K 
could  struggle  against  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  opposed  this 
barbarity  through  every  century.  As  the  Scriptures  be- 
came more  circulated  among  the  common  people  after  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  all  men  felt  more  of  the 
compassion  taught  by  Him,  and  this  abuse  seemed  more 
and  more  a  shame  to  the  faith  they  professed.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  Roman  law  indeed  upheld  it,  and  the  bigotry 
of  priests  and  cruelty  of  rulers,  but  the  Teacher  of  love 
everywhere  through  the  Gospels  preached  against  it  in  the 
hearts  of  men.  Nothing  but  His  influence  seems  finally  to 
have  uprooted  it  among  European  nations. 

The  author?  from  whom  we  have  quoted,  A.  Nicholas 
Von  Boden,  Bernhardi,  are  filled  with  the  Christian  spirit, 
and  strike  telling  blows  at  the  evil.  The  latter  writer  states 
that  the  abuse  was  abolished  in  Holland,  because  in  Utrecht, 


1 88  CESTA    CHRISTI. 

a  man  brought  a  false  charge  of  theft  against  a  shoe- 
maker.^ The  workman  was  tortured,  confessed,  and  was 
finally  executed.  It  subsequently  appeared  that  the  ac- 
cusation arose  from  the  shoemaker's  refusal  to  buy  a  pair 
of  shoes  from  the  man.  Such  instances  were  no  doubt 
constantly  occurring  and  aiding  to  bring  Europe  to  right 
reason.  This  author  says,  that  the  system  of  torture  ought 
to  be  cast  out  of  the  doors  of  Christianity,  and  that  it  is 
destitute  of  any  appearance  even  of  a  divine  test  of  truth. 

It  is  but  just  to  say  that  in  these  matters  of  humanity 
and  public  right,  the  sceptics  were  often  in  their  practice 
nearer  Christ  than  were  the  popes,  bishops  and  clergy. 
The  Christian  spirit  affected  the  ideas  of  those  who  were 
nominally  unbelievers.  The  French  free-thinkers  and 
their  followers  opposed  the  use  of  torture  with  all  their 
eloquence.  Montaigne  uttered  his  condemnation  of  it, 
Voltaire  addressed  (in  1777)  an  earnest  appeal  to  Louis 
XVI.  against  it,  and  the  philosopher  king,  Frederick  the 
Great,  made  it  the  first  act  of  his  reign  to  abolish  it  (1740), 
though  his  humanity  was  not  sufficient  to  prevent  his 
using  it  on  those  accused  of  treason  and  rebellion  against 
himself. 

In  Saxony,  Switzerland,  and  Austria,  it  was  abolished 
towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  ;  in  Russia  it 
survived  till  1801  ;  in  Wurtemburg  and  Bavaria  it  was  in 
use  in  1806  and  1807;  in  Hannover  till  1822;  and  in 
Baden  till  1831,^  In  France,  the  storm  of  the  Revolution 
swept  it  away ;  and  almost  at  the  same  time  it  came  to 
an  end  in  North  Italy,  but  was  used  in  the  prisons  of 
Naples  and   Palermo  down  to  the  middle  of  this  century. 

It  is  remarkable  that,  according  to  Lea,  ^  instances  of 

'  Quoted  by  Lea. 

'  A  Reading  on  the  nse  of  Torture,  etc.     D  Jnrdine,  London,  1837. 

*  Page  522. 


ABOLITION  OF   TORTURE.  189 

judicial  torture  to  extort  evidence  have  occurred  in 
Europe  within  a  few  years  :  one  in  Roumania  in  1868, 
and  the  other  in  the  enhghtened  RepubHc  of  Switzerland, 
in    the  Canton  of  Zug,  in  1869. 

The  civiHzed  world  has  happily  for  ever  passed  beyond 
this  great  abuse  and  injustice,  which  has  caused  such 
untold  pain  and  misery,  and  has  broken  the  courage  and 
endurance  of  such  countless  numbers  of  human  beings 
Unfortunately  for  the  name  of  Christianity,  the  Church 
sustained  and  employed  this  diabolical  system  of  cruelty 
and  oppression.  But  the  teachings  of  Christ,  and  the 
protests  of  many  of  His  followers  have  opposed  it  in  every 
age.  As  men  have  become  more  and  more  filled  with  His 
spirit,  or  indirectly  influenced  by  Christian  ideas,  torture 
has  disappeared,  and  is  now  as  one  of  the  horrible  spectres 
of  a  dismal  and  bloody  past.  In  non-Christian  countries, 
however,  it  exists,  but  is  gradually  abolished  as  their  codes 
of  law  come  under  the  influence  of  the  doctrines  of  Jesus. 
In  one  of  the  most  civilized  of  these — Japan — it  was  form- 
ally abolished  as  a  means  of  procuring  evidence,  ^  in  1873, 
— the  new  code  being  reformed  after  those  of  Christian 
countries. 

*  Reed's  yia/a«.  voL  i.  d.  324. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  stranger's   RIGHT. 

Under  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  habits  of  mind,  the 
stranger  was  mainly  looked  upon  as  a  barbarian  and 
enemy.^  Something  of  the  same  savagery,  which  in 
Stanley's  travels  through  Central  Africa  made  almost 
every  new  tribe  he  met  with  at  once  attack  him  like  a 
dangerous  wild  beast,  animated  the  ancient  races,  both 
barbarous  and  civilized,  in  their  relations  to  foreigners, 
Stoicism  indeed  cultivated  a  more  humane  feeling  among 
the  learned  and  refined  ;  but  the  masses  of  the  people  in 
the  ancient  world  were  full  of  prejudices  and  hostility 
against  those  not  of  their  own  race  or  country.  It  is  true 
that  the  Roman  empire,  with  its  imperial  unity,  tended 
to  melt  different  peoples  together  under  one  rule,  and 
strangers  and  enemies  gradually  became  only  those  outside 
of  the  limits  of  this  grand  domain.  Toward  those,  how- 
ever, the  old  barbaric  feeling  and  custom  were  strong  as 
ever.  That  expression  in  Plautus,  "  A  man  is  a  wolf  to  a 
man  he  does  not  know,"^  is  probably  an  echo  of  an  old 
Roman  proverb,  and   utters  a  common   sentiment  of  the 

'  Hostis  enim  apud  majores  nostros  is  dicebatur  quern  nunc  pere- 
grinum  dicimus.  {Cic.)  Aristotle  says,  Of  all  wars  those  are  most 
necessary  and  just  which  are  made  by  men  against  wild  beasts,  and 
next  those  made  by  Greeks  against  strangers,  "  who  are  naturally 
our  enemies."     {Pol.,  li.  8.) 

^  As.^  2,  4,  88.     Homo  homini  ignoto  lupus,  etc 

190 


HUMANITY   TO    THE  STRANGER.  igt 

Italian  peoples.  When  the  Empire  broke  up  and  the 
Teutonic  codes  to  a  large  degree  controlled  Europe,  we  see 
the  revival  of  the  inhuman  spirit  towards  strangers,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  larger  humanity  taught  by  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  and  by  Christ,  struggling  with  and  mitigating 
the  spirit  of  old  and  savage  legislation. 

That  humane  command  of  the  Old  Testament,  "Thou 
shalt  not  vex  the  stranger"  (Lev.  xix.  33,  34),  seems  to 
have  rung  in  the  ears  of  almost  every  Christian  legislator 
of  the  German,  Keltic,  and  Anglo-Saxon  tribes ;  and  the 
spirit  of  the  new  Revelation  is  seen  everywhere  in- 
spiring and  teaching  a  broader  humanity,  though  often 
in  vain  against  the  ingrained  and  inherited  habits  of  bar- 
barism. 

There  were  indeed  certain  justifications  of  the  old 
Teutonic  dislike  of  strangers.  The  land  of  the  tribe  was 
held  in  common,  and  a  stranger,  as  a  lawless  man,  was  out 
of  connection  with  the  community,  with  no  possessions  and 
no  obligations  ;  he  was  no  doubt  often  a  runaway,  vagrant, 
or  thief,  or  a  disturber  of  the  peace  ;  if  he  came  as  a 
merchant  he  was  outside  of  the  "  mutual  pledge  "  system 
which  bound,  for  instance,  the  Anglo-Saxons  to  good 
conduct.  It  followed  almost  naturally  that  the  laws  in 
regard  to  him  were  often  very  strict  or  cruel.  According 
to  the  Burgundian  law^  he  could  be  tortured  under  sus- 
picious circumstances,  and  even  one  of  Charlemagne's 
capitularies  permits  the  same  treatment.  By  a  law  of  the 
Salian  Franks,  when  a  stranger  wished  to  settle  in  a  village 
or  canton  he  was  not  permitted  the  privilege  if  a  single 
resident  opposed.  If  also  within  ten  days  any  member  of 
the  tribe  presented  himself  with  witnesses,   and  summoned 

'  Quicumqiie  hominem  extraneum  cujuslibet  nationis  ad  se  veni- 
«ntem  suscepeiit,  discutiendum  praesentet  ut  cujus  sit  tormentis 
adhibitis  fateatur.     Lex.  Burg.,  i.  39,  and  Cap.  2  (803  A.D.). 


192  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

him  to  quit  the  village,  and  this  was  repeated  twice  after 
the  ten  days,  he  was  obliged  to  depart.  If  he  refused,  he 
was  summoned  to  the  viallnin,  and  not  only  expelled,  but 
compelled  to  abandon  his  property  and  pay  a  fine.  In 
England,  as  we  shall  shortly  show,  a  stranger  who  was 
accused  of  any  crime  must  be  at  once  put  in  jail;  if  he 
was  found  off  from  the  four  main  roads  and  making  no 
noise  of  bell,  he  could  be  killed  as  a  thief ;  no  one  could 
harbour  him  more  than  three  nights,  and  whoever  did  so 
even  for  that  time  was  responsible  for  his  good  conduct. 
He  was  taxed  wherever  possible.  Even  as  late  as  the  time 
of  Henry  VII I.  all  foreign  artificers  were  prohibited  from 
working  in  the  kingdom.^  The  Saxons  are  said  to  have 
sold  into  slavery  a  stranger  who  had  no  patron.^  By  a  law 
of  many  German  tribes,  if  a  stranger  had  resided  twelve 
months  in  a  district  he  was  safe  ;  if  he  was  guest  of 
a  member  of  the  tribe,  the  host  after  three  nights  became 
responsible  for  him.  The  proverb  was  common,  "Two 
nights  a  guest,  the  third  night  a  servant."  In  Gaul, 
among  the  Keltic  tribes,  the  stranger  was  equally  held 
as  one  outside  of  the  community  and  unable  to  own  the 
property  of  a  warrior.  The  early  German  codes  soon 
begin  to  show  the  eftect  of  the  new  spirit  in  this  matter. 
The  laws  of  the  Bavarians  of  the  twelfth  century  quote 
the  Bible  text  in  regard  to  vexing  the  stranger,  and  lay 
a  heavy  fine  on  him  who  shall  plunder,  sell,  or  wound  a 
stranger,  while  a  burdensome  fine  must  be  paid  to  the 
treasury  for  his  murder. 

That  great  legislator,  Charlemagne,  in  803,  calls  upon 
every  one  in  his  empire,  as  he  would  that  Christ  should  be 
merciful  unto  him,  not  to  refuse  hospitality  to  strangers 

»  32  H.  VIII.,  c.  16. 

2  Peregrinum  qui    patronem    non    habcbant,   vendebant  Saxonis. 

Wegtnkordt. 


DROIT  UAUBAINE.  193 

and  travellers.^  He  directs  all  judges  to  give  just  judg- 
ment, and  to  make  no  distinction  between  tlie  stranger 
and  the  citizen,  because  that  is  the  true  judgment  of  God.* 
No  official  is  permitted  to  oppress  strangers  with  taxes 
or  any  other  burden.^ 

Alfred,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  code,  orders  his  subjects  not 
to  vex  the  stranger  and  far-comer,  in  memory  of  the  Lord's 
people  being  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt ;  and  each  of 
his  successors  repeats  this  injunction  on  religious  grounds. 

The  ancient  Hungarian  law  enjoins  humanity  towards 
strangers  in  that  we  ever  have  the  example  of  the  Master, 
and  the  command  "  I  will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice."  * 

Droit  d" Aitbaine. — One  of  the  most  remarkable  instances 
of  the  continuance  of  a  barbaric  custom  in  a  Christian 
country,  down  to  modern  times,  has  been  the  droit  d'au- 
baine,  ^  or  stranger's  right,  in  France.  The  stranger  for 
centuries  in  France  was  looked  upon  in  law  as  a  serf,  and 
treated  accordingly.  An  aitbain,  or  stranger,  living  a  year 
and  a  day  in  a  French  community,  and  not  professing 
citizenship  or  attaching  himself  to  a  baron,  became  serf 
to  the  seigneur  on  whose  lands  he  resided.  It  was  the 
fourteenth  century  before  the  strangers  ceased  to  be 
regarded  as  bound  to  the  soil  in  France,  and  features  of 
the  droit  d" aitbaine  have  survived  to  the  present  day.     The 

'  Volumus  ut  infra  regna,  Christo  propitio  nostro,  omnibus  iteran- 
tibus,  nuUus  hospitium  denegat,  mansionem  et  focum  tantum.  Char. 
3  Cap.,  and  others. 

2  Quod  justum  est,  judicata.  Sive  civis  sit  ille,  sive  peregrinus 
nulla  sit  distantia  personarum,  quia  Dei  judicium.     (62.) 

'  72,  9  c. 

*  Semper  illud  Domini  exemplum,  etc. 

*  Probably  derived  from  Albanus,  or  Scotchman,  as  being  the  foreign 
people  most  often  strangers  in  France.  It  may  also  be  from  alibi 
natus.  Others  give,  Celt,  all,  autre ;  batm,  juridiction,  district, 
contrde,  pays.  (See  Hist,  de  la  Cotid.  civ.  d' Etrangkrs  en  France- 
Par  C.  Demangeat,  Paris,  1844.) 


I9A  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

oppressive  custom  had  indeed  been  lightened  by  the  greed 
of  the  seigneurs  for  money  obtained  by  selling  their  rights 
over  foreigners,  and  by  the  power  of  the  kings,  who  pro- 
tected strangers  in  the  interest  of  royalty  against  feudal 
barons.  The  Christian  religion,  too,  softened,  though  fot 
centuries  it  could  not  remove,  the  oppression.  The  abso- 
lute servitude  of  strangers  was  formally  abolished  from 
the  thirteenth  to  the  fourteenth  century.  In  the  earlier 
times  the  seigneur  at  the  death  of  the  stranger  took, 
by  law,  all  his  inheritance.  But  toward  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  if  he  had  left  children,  half  the  pro- 
perty was  permitted  to  descend  to  them.  Louis  X.  (13 15) 
ordered  servitude  to  be  changed  to  freedom,^  but  the  efforts 
failed  against  the  struggles  of  the  feudal  gentry. 

The  aubains,  or  strangers,  of  the  Middle  Ages  seem  to 
have  been  in  almost  the  same  position  with  serfs.  They 
were  bound  to  the  soil,  and  masters  could  pursue  them  if 
they  ran  away ;  they  sold  their  rights  over  them  like  any 
other  property.  The  stranger  was  obliged  to  pay  dues 
to  the  baron  ;  if  married  to  a  person  of  another  class, 
he  must  pay  a  fine,  and,  if  his  marriage  was  without  the 
consent  of  his  master  or  seigneur  his  goods  could  be  confis- 
cated and  the  marriage  declared  null  and  void.  In  divers 
ways  the  unfortunate  foreigners  in  France  were  plundered 
and  taxed  throughout  the  Middle  Ages.  They  could  not 
inherit  or  bequeath  property.  Even  as  late  as  the  six- 
teenth century  the  aubains  could  not  transmit  property, 
except  a  fixed  small  sum,  or  succeed  to  an  estate.  In 
146 1,  Louis  XI.  exempted  from  the  droit  d'aubaitie  and 
the  correlated  right  of  barbarism,  the  droit  de  naiifrage — 
wreckers'  right — certain  large  districts  in  Flanders  and  the 
adjacent  regions.  It  was  not  till  1606  that  England  and 
France  released  merchants  by  treaty  from  these  oppressive 
*  Servitude  fust  ramende  ^  franchise. 


ABOLITION  OF  DROIT  D'AUBAINE.  195 

dues  and  exactions.  Henry  1 1.,  in  1554,  expressly  exempted 
Scotch  merchants  from  the  droit  d'aubaine.  Still  with 
these  various  exemptions,  the  general  law  for  centuries  in 
France  was  that  a  stranger,  if  he  did  not  recognise  the 
seigneur  on  whose  land  he  lived,  could,  after  a  year  and 
a  day,  be  arrested  and  his  goods  confiscated,  or  he  be 
forced  to  pay  a  heavy  fine.  He  became  the  man  of  the 
baron  and  must  bestow  on  him  a  certain  sum  by  will,  or 
the  baron  inherited  all  his  property.  Even  native  French- 
men wandering  to  some  other  than  their  native  district 
were  liable  to  become  native  aubains. 

This  odious  right  was  finally  abolished  by  the  humane 
impulse  of  the  Revolution  in  1790  ;  that  is,  strangers  could 
transmit  property  to  other  than  French  children,  but  they 
were  not  permitted  to  collect  property  left  to  them  in 
France,  nor  were  they  made  equal  with  Frenchmen  in 
regard  to  imprisonment  for  debt,  the  transference  of  pro- 
perty, or  the  ability  to  appear  as  plaintiffs  in  court. 

It  was  not  till  this  century  (1819)  that  strangers  in 
France  were  placed  by  other  than  treaty  law  on  an  equality 
with  native  Frenchmen,  and  allowed  to  receive  bequests 
and  to  own  real  estate.  In  1832  a  still  further  improve- 
ment was  made  in  their  condition  by  their  being  delivered 
from  imprisonment  for  small  debts. 

As  regards  foreign  countries,  these  odious  relics  of  a 
barbarous  age  were  abolished  by  treaty  in  France,  first 
in  1760; — the  privilege  of  exemption  being  secured  by  the 
United   States  in    1778,  and  by  Russia   and  England   in 

1787. 

Similar  inequalities  in  regard  to  strangers,  derived  from 
the  ancient  customs  of  half-civilized  tribes  and  from 
feudalism,  still  exist  under  the  common  law  of  England, 
and  have  been  continued  in  many  of  the  United  States. 
The  right  of  a  stranger  to  own  real  estate  in  most  of  the 


196  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

American  States  is  only  given  by  special  statute  or  on 
application  to  the  court. 

The  struggle  of  Christianity  against  this  spirit  of  in- 
tolerance is  only  seen  in  the  early  legislation  of  the 
German  and  Keltic  tribes,  because  then  the  motive  power 
was  fresher  and  more  distinctly  expressed.  But  when 
Paul  on  Mars'  Hill  uttered  to  the  race  most  proud  of  its 
blood  in  antiquity  and  who  held  all  foreigners  as  bar- 
barians, that  watch-word  of  modern  humanity,  "  God  hath 
made  of  one  all  races  of  men,"  and  when  He  repeated  it 
in  so  many  forms  to  the  great  conquering  race  of  the  past 
— the  Romans — we  may  be  sure  that  an  idea  from  the 
great  Master  was  thrown  into  human  society  which  must 
everywhere  break  down  the  hatred  of  race  to  race. 

As  this  humane  principle  became  more  an  element  in 
human  progress,  it  was  less  spoken  of  as  a  religious  in- 
fluence. It  entered  into  legislation  silently,  and  after  long 
struggles  began  the  reforms  which  are  not  yet  finished ;  for 
under  the  teachings  of  Christianity,  there  can  be  no  unjust 
and  oppressive  discriminations  made  against  the  stranger 
and  foreigner,  but  all  nations  are  of  "  one  blood." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   WRECKERS'    RIGHT   AND   ITRACY. 

Of  all  persons  claiming  the  offices  of  common  humanity, 
it  would  seem  that  the  unfortunate  sailor  or  stranger, 
wrecked  on  a  foreign  shore,  was  the  one  most  innocent  and 
most  deserving.  And  yet  in  all  ages  before  Christianity, 
and  often  since,  either  the  shipwrecked  mariner  and 
traveller  were  held  to  be  the  slaves  or  captives  of  those 
who  rescued  them,  or  their  property  became  lawful  plunder 
of  any  into  whose  hands  it  fell.  They  were  considered 
the  outlaws  of  mankind. 

The  Visigoths,  more  than  any  of  the  German  tribes, 
were  at  least  externally  influenced  by  the  Christian 
principle,  and  their  code  showed  one  of  the  first  efforts  to 
do  away  with  this  barbaric  practice  towards  the  ship- 
wrecked. Severe  penalties  were  threatened  against  plun- 
dering the  goods  of  wrecked  vessels.  The  Anglo-Saxons 
too  were  somewhat  touched  with  the  higher  humanity  of 
the  new  Faith,  and  one  law  proclaims  (about  978  A.D.) 
"  Let  every  merchant-ship  have  frith  (peace)  that  comes 
within  port,  though  it  be  a  hostile  port,  if  it  be  not  (storm-) 
driven  !  If  it  be  (storm-)  driven,  and  it  flee  to  any  peace- 
burgh,  then  let  these  men  and  what  they  bring  with  them 
have  peace." 

Henry  I.  (1130  A.D.)  referring  to  the  wreckers'  right, 
says  :    "  Hanc    abhorrens  consuetudinem,"  abhorring  this 

197 


198  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

custom,  he  ordains  a  law,  that  whoever  escapes  from  a 
wreck  should  be  allowed  to  possess  his  property. 

Richard  II.  (i  190)  proclaims  that,  having  himself  ex- 
perienced the  calamities  of  shipwreck,  he  does  "for  the 
love  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  his  soul  demand  safet} 
and  protection  for  all  shipwrecked  persons  and  their  goods 
in  whatever  land  or  sea."^ 

The  ancient  mercantile  community  was  the  first  to 
feel  the  new  spirit  of  humanity,  and  their  interests  would 
naturally  move  them  to  resist  barbaric  practices.  Every 
old  mercantile  code  contains  provisions  against  the  ill- 
treatment  of  these  unfortunate  persons.  The  Code  d'Oleron 
(dating  before  the  fourteenth  century)  is  full  of  honest  in- 
dignation against  those  who  injure  the  shipwrecked,  and 
commands  the  plunderers  to  be  half-drowned  and  stoned 
like  dogs. 

It  is  said  to  be  "  against  the  command  of  God  the 
All-powerful,  notwithstanding  any  custom  or  ordinance, 
to  plunder  the  shipwrecked,  and  all  such  are  accursed " 
(Art.  38)  ;  and  whoever  should  put  up  false  lights  to  mis- 
lead the  unwary  and  thus  cause  disaster  and  wreck,  ought 
to  be  bound  in  the  midst  of  his  house  and  fire  to  be  set 
to  its  four  corners  and  be  burned  with  it,  and  the  whole 
place  be  turned  into  a  hog-yard.^  Nothing  however 
seemed  to  uproot  this  barbarous  practice.  In  the  tenth 
and  eleventh  centuries  the  Dukes  of  Brabant  still  claimed 
the  right  to  plunder  all  persons  who  were  so  unfortunate 

'  Ricardus  Rex  jam  expertus  calamitates  naufragorum,  pro  amore 
Dei  et  salute  animse  suas  et  parentum  suorum  quictem  clamavit  in 
perpetuum  Wrec  per  totani  terram  suam  citra  mare,  et  ultra  statuens  ; 
quod  omnis  naufragus  qui  ad  terram  pervenerit,  omnes  res  suas  liberas 
et  quietas  habeat.     Leg.  Sax.,  Wilkins,  p.  342. 

^  Et  doibt  estre  li^  k  une  esteppe  en  millieu  de  sa  maison,  et  on  doibt 
mettre  le  feu  es  quatres  cornieres  de  sa  maison  et  faire  tout  brusler, 
etc.     Art.  41,  c.  8. 


CRUELTY  TO  SHIPWRECKED.  199 

as  to  be  cast  on  their  coasts.  The  Council  of  Nantes 
(i  127)  thundered  against  it ;  and  in  1231,  the  good  king, 
St.  Louis,  made  a  treaty  with  the  Duke  of  Brabant, 
endeavouring  to  convert  these  rights  into  money  pay- 
ments. 

Among  the  reh'gious  efforts  made  to  Hmit  this  odious 
custom  of  a  cruel  age,  may  be  mentioned,  the  "  Judgments 
of  the  Sea,"  a  code  of  St.  Louis,  in  1266.  By  these  new 
regulations,  the  seigneur  on  whose  domains  unfortunate 
vessels  were  cast,  was  not  permitted  to  seize  the  property 
or  to  enslave  the  persons  of  the  crew  ;  but  he  is  required 
to  aid  the  sufferers  and  to  save  the  property.  "  Whoever 
shall  do  the  contrary,  shall  be  excommunicated  from  the 
church,  and  punished  as  a  robber  "  (Art.  29),  and  by  Art. 
30,  if,  after  a  year,  no  owner  appear,  the  baron  shall  pub- 
licly sell  the  wrecked  property,  and  distribute  the  money 
among  the  poor,  and  otherwise  do  works  of  compassion 
with  the  proceeds. 

The  Lateran  Council  (1179)  promulgated  one  article 
agamst  the  inhuman  practice,  and  forbade  any  one  de- 
spoiling the  wrecked.  ^ 

These  efforts  however  did  not  avail,  for  in  1277  Philip 
the  Bold  was  obliged  to  issue  an  ordinance,  excepting 
from  the  usual  royal  claims  the  property  of  Italian 
merchants  thus  brought  to  misfortune. 

Louis  XI.  (1465-69)  claimed  all  shipwrecked  goods  as 
legal  property  of  the  crown  ;  the  only  exceptions  being  in 
favour  of  the  Dutch  and  Flemings,  and  of  the  Hanseatic 
League.  The  ordinance  of  1543  is  said  to  be  the  first 
legal  evidence  of  a  reform  in  this  practice  in  France  ;  by 

^  Ne  patientes  naufragium  quisquam  spoliare  prjesumat.  (C.  21.) 
Excommunicatione  quoque  poenas  siibdantur  qui  Romanos  aiit  alios 
Christianos  pro  negotio  vel  aliis  causis  honestis  navigio  vectos,  aut 
capere  aut  rebus  suis  praesumunt.     (3  Cotu.  Lat.) 


200  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

this  act,  the  wrecked  persons  were  permitted  to  reclaim 
their  property  within  a  year  and  a  day.  ^ 

In  other  portions  of  Europe  there  was  much  humane 
legislation  against  this  evil.  In  Spain,  Sicily,  and  Italy, 
the  commercial  cities  and  Republics  strove  everywhere  to 
include  humane  treatment  towards  the  wrecked  in  the  privi- 
leges granted  to  them  by  treaties.  The  religious  bodies 
universally  denounced  the  practice  of  cruelty  towards  these 
unfortunate  persons.  It  existed  on  the  coasts  of  Scotland 
till  the  thirteenth  century  ;  and  in  Germany  it  was  only  in 
the  twelfth  century  that  the  right  of  the  baron  or  the  crown 
over  wrecked  property  was  changed  to  a  fine  for  protec- 
tion. On  the  coasts  of  Prussia  the  ancient  right  of  plun- 
dering and  enslaving  the  shipwrecked  was  believed  to  be 
derived  from  the  old  Rhodian  Law. 

Many  treaties  were  made  in  the  thirteenth  century 
between  Christian  and  Mohammedan  countries,  endeavour- 
ing to  protect  Europeans  from  this  cruel  practice.  The 
final  abolition  of  this  inhuman  custom  was  due  to  a  com- 
bination of  influences.  The  sense  of  humanity  taught 
and  encouraged  by  the  new  Faith  was  also  stimulated  by 
the  broadening  effects  of  commerce,  and  by  the  mutual 
interests  of  traders  and  their  customers. 

The  only  nations  among  whom  this  barbarism  still  en- 
dures in  modern  times,  are  the  non-Christian,  especially 
the  Mohammedan  peoples  of  the  north  of  Africa.  But 
even  here,  the  power  of  civilized  races  has  checked  it  ; 
and  humanity  to  the  shipwrecked  is  now  stamped  by  the 
Christian  Faith  on  the  public  law  and  custom  of  all  lead- 
ing nations.  It  would  not  only  be  considered  in  this  age 
a  violation  of  international  law  to  plunder  or  treat  cruelly 
the  shipwrecked,  but  the  religious  and  humane  spirit  of 

*  Pardessus.      Collcc/ion  de  Lois  Maritimes, 


PIRACY.  20I 

Christian  countries  has  made  it  a  duty  and  satisfaction  to 
aid  these  unfortunate  persons. 

Piracy. — The  practice  of  indiscriminate  plundering  on 
the  sea  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  was  only  a 
part  of  the  private  war  prevailing  on  the  land.  Every  in- 
dividual, or  town,  or  state  who  chose,  could  equip  a  vessel 
and  plunder  all  others.  No  richly  freighted  ship  was  safe. 
Entire  coasts  became  asylums  for  marine  freebooters. 
Towns  employed  vessels  against  other  towns  ;  and  cities 
thus  waged  war  with  one  another. 

The  leagues  of  commercial  towns  did  much  to  clear  the 
seas  of  these  free-booters,  and  piracy  was  finally  checked 
by  privateering.  The  evil  (in  a  mitigated  form)  has  lasted 
down  to  our  own  day  in  the  practice  of  "  Private  War " 
under  letters  of  marque,  or  privateering. 

The  new  spirit  infused  into  international  law  by  the 
great  Teacher  is  gradually  abolishing  privateering,  and  this 
century  will  probably  see  the  end  of  "  Private  War  "  on  the 
sea,  as  a  former  century  saw  that  of  a  similar  savage 
custom  on  land. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CHARLEMAGNE'S  CAPITULARIES. 

No  student  of  the  Middle  Ages  can  be  othervv'Ise  than 
deeply  impressed  with  the  wonderful  personality  which 
led  the  work  of  reforming  and  re-organizing  that  portion 
of  Europe  held  by  the  German  and  Keltic  tribes.  Charle- 
magne's legislation  bears  the  constant  impress  of  the  new 
moral  power  in  the  world  ;  and  though  his  practical  action 
was  by  no  means  always  guided  by  Christianity,  these  laws 
often  give  a  fair  example  of  the  influence  of  the  religion  of 
Jesus  on  the  laws  of  barbaric  tribes. 

One  of  his  capitularies  (789  A.D.)  uses  almost  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Bible,  when  he  says,  "  Let  no  one  claim 
wrongfully  the  lands  of  another,  and  pass  not  the  bound- 
aries of  his  fathers."  "  No  one  should  turn  away  the 
offerings  which  may  be  the  whole  patrimony  of  the  poor !  " 
"  Let  peace  and  good  intelligence  rule  among  bishops, 
abbots,  counts,  judges,  and  men  of  all  conditions,  for  with- 
out peace,  nothing  pleases  the  Lord."  "  If  ye  love  one 
another,  all  will  know  ye  are  Christ's  disciples !  "  Accord- 
ing to  the  command  of  our  Lord,  let  no  murder  be  com- 
mitted in  the  spirit  of  vengeance,  avarice,  and  rapine ; 
wherever  this  crime  be  discovered,  let  our  judges  punish 
it  in  virtue  of  our  orders,  but  let  no  one  in  future  lose  his 
life  if  the  law  do  not  condemn  him.^     Widows  and  orphans 

'  Cap.  Eccles.,  61,  66,  ttc. 


LAWS   OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  203 

and  minors  are  to  be  protected,  as  under  the  peculiar  care 
of  God,  and  are  everywhere  to  have  peace  and  receive 
justice."  ^  "  And  it  pleases  us  that  the  faithful  should  be 
admonished  concerning  hatred  and  discord,  which  extin- 
guish charity  among  those  nearest,  and  destroy  affection." ' 
The  true  charity  which  loveth  God  and  our  neighbour  is 
to  be  cultivated  ;  ^  and  friendship  and  affection  are  to  be 
observed  according  to  the  words  of  the  Apostle  to  the 
Corinthians.^  The  people  were  exhorted  to  peace  and 
concord,  because  they  have  one  Father  in  heaven,^  and 
because  the  blessed  book  had  taught  them  that  "  Blessed 
are  the  peace-makers."  They  are  warned  against  feud,^ 
and  in  the  words  of  Scripture  against  any  rash  shedding 
of  Christian  blood.'''  The  powerful  are  cautioned  against 
the  oppression  of  the  poor  ;  *  and  all  are  exhorted  to  be 
imitators  of  Him  who  would  save  the  souls  of  men.^  And 
all  Christians  are  most  solemnly  warned  to  give  their 
utmost  diligence,  lest  they  be  for  ever  separated  from  the 
kingdom  of  God,  by  their  strifes  and  contentions  and 
falsehood  and  wicked  vices. ^° 

The  great  sin  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  the  habit  of  false 
swearing.  These  laws  bid  the  citizen  beware  of  perjury, 
not  only  on  the  holy  Gospels,  the  relics  of  the  saints  and 
the  altar,  but  in  common  conversation.      "There  are  some 

'  Ut  vi(/uce,  orphani  et  minus  potentes  sub  Dei  defensione,  etc, 
(c.  ccxxvii.j 

*  Placuit  ut  fideles  admonentur  de  odio  et  discordia,  etc.  (c.  cclxL) 
^  Vera  caritas  qua  Deus  proximusque  diligitur,  etc.  (ccc.xlvii.) 

*  c.  cccxlii. 

'  Quia  unum  Deum  patrem  habemus  in  coelo,  etc.    (Lib.  7.) 

*  Pro  Faida,  etc.  (Lib.  5,  c.  ccv.) 
'  c.  cccxxvii. 

®  c.  ccclxxxii. 

*  c.  cccxxxiii. 

"  ,    ,    .    a  regno  Dei  se  alienos  faciant.  {Add.  2,  cxxiL) 


204  GESTA    CHRISTl. 

who  swear  by  charity  and  truth,  and  know  not  that  the 
same  God  is  charity  and  truth  "  ^ ;  they  urge  honest  weights 
and  measures  in  towns  and  monasteries,  for  "  my  soul 
hateth  false  measures."  ^ 

On  the  question  of  marriage,  no  one  is  permitted  to 
marry  a  divorced  woman  (43)  ;  and  if  a  man  abandon  hi*, 
wife,  he  is  to  be  punished.  No  husband  shall  desert  his 
wife,  except  for  the  cause  allowed  in  Scripture — criminal 
conduct.^  And  still  more  remarkable,  the  slave  is  pro- 
tected in  his  marriage,  and  even  if  the  partners  be  sold 
to  different  masters,  the  union  is  still  lawful  and  must  be 
respected.^  The  Christian  abhorrence  which  first  animated 
the  Roman  law  against  unnatural  vice,  appears  in  the 
capitularies.  The  great  emperor  speaks  of  the  Roman 
Law  as  "  the  mother  of  all  human  laws  ;  "  and  draws  a 
warning  from  the  fate  of  the  nations  of  Spain  and  the 
tribes  of  the  Burgundians,  who  had  been  given  up  to 
unnatural  vices  and  were  therefore  permitted  by  God  to 
be  enslaved  by  the  Saracens.^ 

His  law  also  shows  mercy  to  the  outlaw  {tvargendtim') 
by  making  his  blood-money  the  same  as  for  killing  a 
Frank.  He  repeats  the  humane  phrase,  unfortunately  too 
often  only  a  phrase  :  "  Ecclesia  abhorret  sanguine  "   (the 

* .  .  ,  ut  caveant  perjurium,  non  solum  in  sancto  Evangelio, 
vel  in  altare,  seu  in  sanctorum  reliquiis,  sed  in  communi  loquella, 
etc.    (63.) 

2  Lib.  7.  c.  cclii. 

3  NuUus  conjugem  propriam  nisi  ut  sanctun)  conjugium  docet,  for- 
nicationis  causa,  relinquat.     Cap.  Reg.  Fr.,  c.  Ixxxvii. 

*  Unde  nobis  visum  est  ut  conjugiaservorum  non  dirimuntur,  etiamsi 
diversos  dominos  habeant  sed  in  uno  conjugio  permanentes.  {Add^ 
Tert.,  c.  iv.) 

*  Sicut  aliis  gentibus  Hispanic  et  Province  at  Burgundiorum  populis 
contigit,  quas,  sic  a  Deo  recedentes,  fornicatas  sunt,  donee  Judex 
Omnipotens,  etc.  (Cap.  4,  16.)  See  also  lib.  7,  cxlii.  Ut  monachi  se- 
cundum regulam  vivant. 


CHRISTIAN  IN  LEGISLATION.  205 

Church  abhorreth  blood)  ;  he  calls  cupidity  the  root 
of  all  evil  ;  and  recommends  hospitality  for  the  reason 
that  he  who  receiveth  a  little  child  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  receiveth  Him  ;  the  observance  of  Sunday  was 
ordered,  which  is  a  special  legislation  for  the  working- 
classes  ;  respect  for  the  dead  was  encouraged,  and  the 
obligation  of  prayer  impressed  on  all.  The  laity  were 
ordered  to  learn  the  Apostles'  Creed  ;  and,  to  soften  them, 
the  emperor  quotes  incessantly  from  the  precepts  of 
Christianity,  forbidding  the  oppression  of  the  poor  and 
humble,  and  ordering  the  judges  to  hear  the  cause  of  the 
poor  before  that  of  the  rich.  To  break  up  the  ancient 
feuds  which  desolated  society,  he  orders  that  whoever 
slays  his  enemy  after  peace  has  been  declared,  must  lose 
his  hand  and  pay  a  fine  (cap.  50).  The  stranger  and  far- 
comer  are  especially  protected,  under  the  injunctions  in 
the  Bible,  and  because  such  may  be  journeying  in  the 
service  of  their  common  Master.^ 

It  is  true  that  much  of  this  legislation  was  violated  in 
practical  experience,  and  that  it  was  largely  swept  away 
after  the  death  of  the  great  reformer.  But  it  shows  with 
remarkable  clearness,  what  the  direct  influence  of  this  Faith 
from  Judaea  was  upon  legislation  through  the  wild  period 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  what  it  tended  to  bring  about. 

'  Advenam  non  contristabis,  etc.  (Lib,  xxviii.)  Nemo  enim  auttu 
sit  inquietare  vel  nocere  peregrinum,  etc.    (Lib.  7,) 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

ANGLO-SAXON   LAW. 

There  are  two  opposite  difficulties  in  weighing  correctly 
the  influence  of  reh'gious  faith  on  the  laws,  and  thus  on 
the  morals  of  a  country  :  one,  that  the  laws  may  be  far  in 
advance  of  the  practice  of  a  people  and  thus  merely  repre- 
sent the  ideals  of  conduct ;  and  the  other,  that  the  practice 
and  customs  may  have  far  preceded  the  legislation,  which 
is  thus  only  a  "survival"  of  an  ancient  period.  In  regard 
to  the  Anglo-Saxons  or  Old  English,  it  would  appear  that 
the  legislation  of  their  kings  and  assemblies  was  much  in 
advance  morally  of  the  habits  of  the  people  ;  and  that  it 
represented  the  new  and  living  moral  forces  which  were 
gradually  to  change  England  from  barbarism  to  civili- 
zation. That  these  forces  were  essentially  Christian,  is 
evident  from  the  chronicles  and  biographies  of  the  period, 
and  especially  from  the  language  of  the  legislation,  and  the 
motives  habitually  employed  in  it  to  promote  good  action. 
The  great  peculiarity  of  the  Christian  system  of  morals  is 
the  impulse  given  to  virtuous  and  disinterested  action  by 
regard  to  a  Person,  to  a  perfect  life  and  character,  which 
has  supernatural  relations,  and  by  a  consideration  of  con- 
sequences in  another  existence.  These  features  are  espe- 
cially stamped  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  legislation.  Whether 
the  well-known  religious  character  of  some  of  the  kings,  or 
the  deep  religious  tendencies  of  the  law-makers,  have  given 
these  peculiarities  to  old  English  laws,  is  uncertain.     It  is 

306 


ANGLO-SAXON  LAW.  207 

well-known  that  the  ministers  of  religion  at  that  era  in 
England  were,  to  a  large  degree,  lawyers ;  and  they  exer- 
cised a  povrerful  influence  on  the  making  of  laws.  It  was 
an  influence,  however,  moral  rather  than  ecclesiastical  or 
technical.  The  Anglo-Saxon  laws  certainly  form  a  great 
contrast,  in  this  respect,  to  most  other  codes  of  that  age. 
Society  in  England  was  more  barbarous,  and  more  stained 
by  crime  and  violence  than  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
But  no  ancient  code  of  the  German  or  Keltic  tribes  in 
France  and  Germany  (with  the  exception  of  Charlemagne's 
Capitularies),  or  of  the  Welsh  in  Britain  of  the  same  period 
breathes  any  such  religious  spirit  or  such  pure  morality 
founded  on  Christian  faith.  The  Anglo-Saxon  laws,  too, 
have  avoided  the  errors  of  the  Christian  Church  in  separat- 
ing morality  and  faith  :  they  are  nearer  the  great  Master, 
in  teaching  the  direct  connection  of  good  action  or  pure 
thoughts,  and  respect  or  love  for  Him.  It  is  true  that  in 
England,  as  in  all  other  countries,  the  teachings  of  Christ 
were  forgotten  or  obscured  by  superstition,  or  submerged 
by  tides  of  human  passion  and  selfishness,  and  Christianity 
was  eclipsed  there  as  it  has  been  everywhere  in  the  world. 
But  for  a  time  we  see  its  clear  light  shining  in  English 
history,  and  we  know  how  many  fogs  of  ancient  prejudice 
it  dispelled  ;  how  many  abuses  it  silently  melted,  and 
what  a  soil  it  prepared  for  all  that  is  best  in  English 
growth  since.  It  did  not  indeed  accomplish  all  that 
might  be  expected  from  its  power.  But  history  is  long; 
and  the  life  of  one  nation  can  show  but  an  inconsiderable 
part  of  the  effects  of  this  renovating  influence.  It  is 
sufficient  to  describe  forces  which  are  capable  in  their 
nature  of  bringing  about  a  complete  and  perfect  moral 
transformation  of  society. 

In  the   British   Islands,  as   through  all  Europe,  among 
the  tribes  outside  of  Roman  law,  persor  al  revenge,  as  we 


2o8  GESTA    CHRISTL 

have  already  stated,  and  family  feuds  took  the  place  fof 
a  long  period  of  legal  and  judicial  punishments.  Society 
was  resolved  almost  to  its  primeval  savage  elements. 
The  first  influence  of  Christianity  in  England  (as  else- 
where) was  to  curb  personal  revenge,  by  encouraging  the 
existing  system  of  bot  or  fines,  so  that  every  kind  of  ofi"ence 
should  be  compensated  for  by  some  amend,  paid  in  pro- 
perty, in  part  to  the  suflerer,  in  part  to  the  king.  From 
this,  the  next  step  is  to  a  strict  legal  and  perhaps  bloody 
punishment  by  the  proper  authorities,  instead  of  which  no 
payment  can  be  accepted.  Then,  beyond  this,  come  the 
milder  punishments,  inculcated  by  the  spirit  of  humanity. 
Religion  aids  in  each  of  these  steps,  but  in  England,  as 
throughout  Europe,  it  checked  private  revenge,  especially 
by  the  "  Peace  of  God  "  enforced  on  certain  holy  days,  and 
in  certain  places ;  and  by  the  refuge  ofi"ered  in  the  churches 
to  the  victim  fleeing  from  the  anger  of  a  powerful  enemy. 
All  these  privileges  offered  by  the  Church  tended  to  re- 
strain passion  in  that  wild  age.  It  is  an  instance,  too,  of  the 
peculiar  effect  of  Christianity,  that  the  freeing  of  bondmen 
or  the  prohibition  of  their  sale  in  foreign  countries,  from 
the  earliest  Saxon  laws  down  into  the  Norman  period,  is 
always  accompanied  by  such  words  as  that  "  it  is  not  right 
to  sell  him  for  whom  Christ  hath  died."  The  commands 
against  unchastity,  or  cruelty,  or  oppression,  are  all  ac- 
companied with  religious  motives.  In  fact,  the  laws  often 
sound  more  like  pastoral  letters  than  legislation  from  war- 
like kings.  A  remarkable  heading  of  a  law  in  regard  to 
honesty  in  King  Canute's  code,  "Ad  Eucharistiam  et 
probitatem "  (about  the  sacraments  and  integrity)  might 
give  a  rebuke  to  the  Christianity  of  our  own  day. 

The  Laws  of  Old  Ejiglisk  Kings. — From  King  Wiht- 
raed,  ^  about  690  A.D.,  we  hear  that  "  men  living  in  illicit 
*  Thorpe's  Collection  of  Anglo-Saxon  Laws  (No.  3). 


MORAL    TEACHINGS  OF  SAXON   KINGS.  209 

intercourse  should  take  to  a  righteous  life  with  repent- 
ance of  their  sins,  or  that  they  be  separated  from  the 
Church."  Howell  the  Good,  in  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century,  ordered  his  Welsh  subjects  to  hold  their  assem- 
blies in  Lent,  "  because  in  holy  tyme  every  one  should 
be  pure,  and  should  do  no  wrong  at  a  time  of  purity." 

One  provision  of  his  laws  shows  the  effort  of  the  reli- 
gious officials  to  promote  the  integrity  of  the  judges.  "A 
judge  is  to  serve  a  year's  apprenticeship,  and  then  the  king's 
chaplain  is  to  take  him  to  the  church,  having  with  him 
twelve  principal  ecclesiastical  officers,  to  celebrate  Mass. 
And  after  Mass  and  an  offering  by  every  one,  let  the  chap- 
lain require  him  to  swear  by  the  relics,  and  by  the  altar, 
and  by  the  consecrated  elements  placed  on  the  altar,  that 
he  will  never  deliver  a  wrong  judgment  knowingly."^ 

King  Alfred  (about  870  A.D.)  introduces  his  code  with  the 
ten  commandments  and  other  laws  taken  from  the  Bible:  he 
quotes  almost  directly  from  Exodus  a  command  especially 
applicable  to  his  age :  "  Vex  not  the  far  comers  and  stran- 
gers :  for  ye  were  once  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt." 
(No.  33.)  The  "  doom  "  on  slaves  has  the  humanity  of  the 
Mosaic  law :  "  If  any  one  buy  a  Christian  bondsman,  let 
him  be  bondsman  to  him  six  years  ;  the  seventh  be  he  free 
unbought.  With  such  clothes  as  he  went  in,  with  such  go 
he  out."  Justice  is  to  be  impartial.  "  Doom  thou  very 
evenly  ;  doom  thou  not  one  doom  to  the  wealthy,  another 
to  the  poor  ;  nor  one  doom  to  the  more  loved,  other  to  the 
more  loathed,  doom  thou  not."  (No.  41.)  Of  his  laws,  the 
king  says  :  "  These  are  the  dooms  that  the  Almighty  God 
Himself  spake  to  Moses,  and  bade  him  to  hold  ;  and  when 
the  Lord's  only  begotten  Son,  that  is  Christ  the  Healer,  on 
middle  earth  came,  He  said  that  He  came  not  these  dooms 
to  break  nor  to  gainsay,  but  with  all  good  to  do,  and  with 
*  Quoted  by  Bridgett  {Hadda7n  and  Stubbs,  i,  229.). 

P 


2IO  GESTA   CHRIS TI. 

all  mild  hcartedncss  and  lowly  mindedness  to  teach  them"^ 
"  That  ye  will  that  other  men  do  not  to  you,  do  ye  not 
that  to  other  men.  From  this  one  doom,  a  man  may  think 
that  he  should  doom  every  one  rightly  ;  he  need  keep  nc 
other  doom-book.  Let  him  take  heed  that  he  doom  to  no 
man  that  he  would  not  that  he  doom  to  him,  if  he  sought 
doom  over  him." 

Through  all  the  Saxon  and  early  Norman  laws,  the 
interests  of  the  working  classes  are  protected  in  the  matter 
of  Sunday.  If  a  bondman  work  on  Sunday  by  his  lord's 
order,  the  lord  must  pay  a  fine  of  thirty  shillings;  if  without 
this  order,  he  must  be  flogged.  If  a  freeman  work  with- 
out his  lord's  order,  he  must  forfeit  his  freedom  or  pay 
sixty  shillings  ;  a  priest  pays  double.  Under  Edgar  and 
Guthrum  (about  900  A.D.)  we  find  :  "  If  any  one  engage  in 
Sunday  marketings,  let  him  forfeit  the  chattel.  ...  If 
a  lord  oblige  his  slave  to  work  on  a  festival  day,  let  him 
pay  the  fine."  (No.  7.)  In  another  law,  a  wrong  to  a 
foreigner  is  held  as  wrong  done  to  Christ  and  the  king. 
(No.  12.)  We  have  already  stated  that  by  the  customs 
of  the  country,  if  a  wreck  happened  on  the  coast,  the  cargo 
and  crew  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  king,  and  in  many 
countries  the  crew  might  be  enslaved,  and  that  every 
foreign  merchant  trafficking  among  the  English  must  give 
hostages  for  his  good  conduct, — so  that  it  will  be  understood 
how  important  were  the  Jewish  and  Christian  directions  of 
kindness  to  the  stranger  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  law.  The 
following  law  of  King  Wihtraed  (700  A.D.)  gives  a  curious 
picture  of  the  state  of  England  :  "  If  a  far-coming  man  or 
a  stranger  get  out  of  the  high  way,  and  he  then  neither 
shout  nor  blow  a  horn,  he  is  to  be  accounted  a  thief,  eithef 
to  be  slain  or  redeemed."  ^     (No.  28.) 

'  Hughes'  Translation. 

*  The  r   ne  law  appears  in  King  Ine's  code.     No.  20. 


RELIGIOUS  LAWS.  21 1 

False  Stvearing. — King  Edward  (940-946)  commands 
that  "  those  who  swear  falsely  and  work  enchantments, 
let  them  be  for  ever  cast  out  of  all  communion  with  God, 
unless  they  turn  to  repentance/'     (No.  6.) 

The  religious  impulse  appears  especially  in  King  Ethel- 
red's  dooms.  (978  A.D.)  "  This  then  first :  that  we  all  love 
and  worship  one  God,  and  zealously  hold  one  Christianity 
.  .  .  that  every  man  be  regarded  as  entitled  to  right  ; 
and  that  peace  and  friendship  be  lawfully  observed  within 
the  land  before  God  and  before  the  world."  (No,  i.) 
"And  let  every  Christian  man  carefully  eschew  unlawful 
concubinage  and  rightly  observe  the  Divine  laws."  (No. 
16).  "And  at  those  holy  tides  (certain  religious  days) 
let  there  be,  as  is  right,  to  all  Christian  men,  general  peace 
and  concord  and  let  every  strife  be  appeased."  (No.  19.) 
The  following  seems  the  injunction  of  a  Christian  pastor 
rather  than  of  a  king  :  "  And  let  God's  law  be  henceforth 
zealously  loved  by  word  and  deed,  then  will  God  soon  be 
merciful  to  this  nation."  (No.  26.)  "  We  will  also  yet 
earnestly  admonish  every  friend,  as  it  is  our  duty  fre- 
quently to  do,  that  every  one  earnestly  consider  himself, 
and  that  he  earnestly  turn  from  his  sins  and  that  he  correct 
other  men  for  injustice,  and  that  above  all  things  he  love 
his  Lord."  (No.  42.)  "  And  that  they  comfort  and  feed 
God's  poor  .  .  .  And  that  they  do  not  too  often 
oppress  widows  and  step-children,  but  willingly  gladden 
them."  (Nos.  46-49.)  "  And  let  every  injustice  be  care- 
fully cast  out  from  this  country  as  far  as  can  be  done. 
And  let  fraudulent  deeds  and  hateful  illegalities  be  ear- 
nestly shunned  ;  that  is,  false  weights  and  wrong  measures, 
and  lying  witnesses,  and  shameful  fightings,"  etc,  "And 
It  is  the  ordinance  of  the  General  Assembly,  that  Christian 
men  be  not  for  altogether  too  little  cau'-e  condemned  to 
death  ;  but  in  general  let  mild  punishments  be  decreed  fof 


212  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

the  people's  need  ;  and  let  not  for  a  little,  God's  own 
handiwork  and  His  purchase  be  destroyed,  which  He 
dearly  bought  .  .  .  And  let  him  who  judges  others 
bear  in  mind  very  seriously  what  he  himself  desires,  when 
he  says  :  Et  dimitte  nobis  debita  nostra."     (vi.  lo.) 

The  ancient  laws  of  King  Canute  (1017  A.D.)  have  the 
tone  of  a  sermon :  "Let  every  Christian  man  do  as  is  needful 
for  him,  let  him  keep  his  Christianity,"  etc.  "  Let  every 
man  guide  his  words  and  works  aright,  and  carefully  keep 
oath  and  pledge,  and  let  every  injustice  be  strictly  cast  out 
of  this  country,  as  far  as  it  can  be  done,  and  let  God's  law 
be  henceforth  earnestly  loved  by  word  and  by  work,  then 
will  God's  mercy  be  more  ready  for  us  all."  (No.  19.) 
"  And  we  instruct  that  every  one  ever  guard  himself  against 
foul  lasciviousness,  and  against  every  kind  of  fornication, 
and  against  every  kind  of  adultery.  And  we  also  instruct 
every  man  that  he  earnestly  have  the  dread  of  God  in  his 
mind,  and  by  day  and  by  night  that  he  fear  for  sins, 
dread  doomsday,  and  shudder  for  hell,  and  ever  suppose 
the  end  of  his  day  near  to  him."  (Nos.  24,  25.)  This  again 
has  the  special  stamp  of  the  new  teaching  :  "  Let  us  ever 
help  those  who  especially  stand  most  in  need  of  help, 
then  shall  we  obtain  the  reward  of  it  where  it  will  be  most 
pleasing  to  us.  For  we  ought  always  for  love  and  fear 
of  God,  to  doom  and  command  more  lightly  to  the  feeble 
than  to  the  strong,  because  we  know  full  well  that  the 
powerless  cannot  raise  a  like  burthen  with  the  powerful, 
nor  the  unhale  alike  with  the  hale  .  .  .  And  both  in 
religious  shrifts  and  socular  dooms,  these  things  ought  to 
be  scattered  abroad."  (No.  6y.)  In  regard  to  the  sale  of 
a  woman  as  ward  or  wife  Canute's  law  says :  "And  let  no 
one  compel  either  woman  or  maiden  to  him,  when  she 
mislikes,  nor  for  money  sell  her."  {L.  Can.,  Ixxv.)  And  as 
to  mercy  to  wrong-doers,  this  humane  legislation  directs : 


SAXON  PIETY  2IJ 

"  If  any  one  will  earnestly  turn  him  from  wrong  again  tc 
right,  let  him  have  mercy  shown  hin:,  or  fear  of  God,  as 
best  may  be,  very  earnestly."  In  a  very  ancient  Anglo- 
Saxon  writing,  "  The  Institutes  of  Polity,"  it  is  said,  that 
"seven  things  are  befitting  a  righteous  king :  first,  that 
he  have  very  great  awe  of  God  ;  second,  that  he  ever  love 
righteousness ;  third,  that  he  be  humble  before  God ; 
fourth,  rigid  towards  evil  ;  fifth,  that  he  comfort  and  feed 
God's  poor ;  sixth,  further  and  protect  God's  Church ;  and 
seventh,  that  towards  friends  and  strangers  alike,  he  be 
guided  by  just  judgment."  ^     (No.  1 1 1.) 

Of  judges,  it  is  said:  "they  need  to  love  justice  before 
God,  and  before  the  world,  and  nowhere  through  unjust 
judgment  for  money  or  for  friendship  neglect  their  duty, 
so  that  they  turn  justice  to  injustice,  or  adjudicate  unjust 
judgment  to  the  injury  of  the  poor;  but  it  is  their  duty 
above  all  things  to  honour  and  defend  the  Church,  and 
gladden  widows  and  step-children,  and  help  the  poor  and 
protect  the  slaves,  if  they  will  rightly  execute  God's  will. 
Thieves  and  public  wrong-doers  they  shall  hate,  and 
spoilers  and  robbers  they  shall  condemn,  unless  they 
desist,  and  they  shall  ever  rigidly  shun  injustice.  Woe 
to  him  who  practises  wrong  too  long,  unless  he  desist  right 
surely  shall  he  pass  through  the  dim  and  dark  abyss  of 
hell,  of  all  help  deprived.  ,  .  .  Let  every  one  guard 
himself,  so  that  he  anger  not  God  too  greatly,  but  pro- 
pitiate his  Lord  with  righteous  deeds."     (v.) 

Feuds. — Nearly  all  the  Teutonic  tribes,  as  we  have  said, 
had  a  custom  or  a  law,  that  the  inheritance  of  the  land 
carried  with  it  the  inheritance  of  the  armour,  and  the 
family- feud  or  ultio  proxinii. 

*  Thorpe's  Laws  and  Institutes, 


ZU  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

One  of  the  first  objects  of  the  English  rulers  under  the 
new  impulse  of  humanity  is  to  curb  this  bloodthirsty  spirit. 

In  the  ancient  Welsh  laws,  feud  was  lessened  by  estab- 
lishing certain  protections  for  every  attendant  of  the  court, 
and  for  given  hours  of  the  day  and  fixed  places.^ 

King  Edmund  also  makes  "  known  to  all  people,  both 
old  and  young,  that  are  in  my  dominion,  what  I  have 
deliberated  in  the  Council  of  my  Assembly,  first,  How  J 
might  most  promote  Christianity.  To  me  and  to  us  all 
are  exceedingly  offensive  the  unrighteous  and  manifold 
fightings  that  are  among  ourselves.  If  any  one  henceforth 
slay  any  man,  that  he  himself  bear  the  feud  unless  with 
the  aid  of  his  friends,  and  within  twelve  months  he  com- 
pensate with  the  full  amend,  be  he  born  as  he  may.  But 
if  the  kindred  forsake  him  and  will  not  pay  for  him,  then 
I  will  that  all  the  kindred  be  free  of  the  feud,  except  the 
doer,  if  afterwards  they  do  not  give  him  either  food  or 
protection." 

Almost  the  first  provision  of  the  ancient  Saxon  code  of 
-^thelbirht  (who  was  baptized  in  597  A.D.)  was  to  make  the 
fine  for  revenging  a  feud  in  the  refuge  of  the  Church,  double 
of  that  in  any  other  violation  of  sanctuary. 

By  King  Ine's  law,  "  If  any  one  take  revenge  before  he 
demand  justice,  let  him  give  up  what  he  has  taken  to 
himself,  and  pay  the  damage  done  and  make  amend  with 
thirty-five  shillings."     (No.  9.) 

Feuds  were  restrained  by  the  "  Peace  of  God  "  declared 
on  certain  days,^  to  violate  which  would  expose  the  of- 
fender to  severe  punishments.  Certain  places  also  were 
made  inviolable  sanctuaries.    Vengeance  at  private  festivals, 

'  See  Thorpe's  La%vs  of  Wales.  This  curious  code  is  full  of  pro- 
visions to  restrain  feud  ;  and  the  most  archaic  penal  provisions. 

-  Ab  advcntu  Domini  usque  ad  octavum  Epiphanic  pax  Dei,  et 
sancte  Ecclcsie  per  omne  regnum.     Leg.  Ed.  Can.,  No.  2.  (1047  A.D.) 


RESTRAINING  FEUD.  215 

was  restrained  by  such  remarkable  laws  as  the  following : 
"At  a  banquet  or  any  gathering,  those  assembling  must 
first  agree  to  maintain  the  peace  of  God  and  of  the  house- 
master. If  any  one  has  a  feud  he  must  engage  to  satisfy 
his  adversary  by  pledge  in  a  certain  place  ;  but  if  they 
cannot  arrange,  the  guilty  one  must  leave  the  banquet ; 
but  if  after  this,  one  troubles  it,  he  shall  pay  a  fine."  (Laws 
— Henry  I.  iioi  A.D.  No.  i,  2.)  In  the  ancient  laws  in 
regard  to  the  Dun  Sctas^  (mountain-dwellers)  or  the  natives 
of  Wales,  a  new  spirit  will  be  seen  after  the  introduction 
of  Christianity.  The  Welshman  is  no  longer  hunted  as  a 
wild  beast ;  he  is  permitted  to  pay  fines  like  an  English- 
man, and  personal  raids  on  his  territory  are  not  per- 
mitted. "  If  a  Welshman  slay  an  Englishman,  he  need 
not  pay  for  him  on  this  side,  except  with  half  his  fine,  no 
more  than  an  Englishman,  on  that  side,"  etc.     (No.  5.) 

These  provisions  only  express  the  early  substitution  of 
humanity  for  barbarism  in  the  bitter  feuds  and  enmities 
between  two  neighbouring  peoples,  and  this  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  new  Faith — a  single  instance  of  the  trans- 
formation going  on  throughout  Europe. 

Alfred,  in  the  introduction  to  his  laws,  expressly  states 
it  as  a  special  result  of  the  "  Faith  of  Christ,"  that  many 
nations  through  their  religious  assemblies  had  ordained, 
"  out  of  that  mercy  which  Christ  had  taught,"  that  secular 
lords  might  without  sin  take  for  almost  every  misdeed,  on 
the  first  offence,  a  money  bot  or  fine  which  was  fixed  by 
law.  This  at  once  took  away  the  necessity  for  revenge, 
and  substituted  law  and  legal  punishment  for  personal  ven- 
geance. Individual  passion  he  seeks  in  every  way  to 
restrain.  "  We  also  command  that  the  man  who  knoweth 
his  foe  to  be  home-sitting,  fight  not  before  he  demandetb 
'  Thorpe's  Collection. 


2l6  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

of  him "  (No.  42)  ;  and  in  various  laws,  the  good  king 
seeks  to  hold  back  the  bloodthirsty  passions  of  the  day. 
There  are  more  than  thirty  laws  in  his  code,  establishing 
bots  or  fines  for  various  offences. 

In  all  these  words  of  human  brotherhood,  of  piety,  and 
the  spirit  of  justice,  of  pity  and  humanity,  uttered  by  the 
barbaric  lawgivers  of  a  wild  race,  there  speaks  a  great 
Personility — the  embodiment  of  the  highest  sympathy 
and  most  disinterested  virtue  of  mankind. 

It  cannot  be  said  indeed  that  these  religious  influences, 
so  apparently  genuine,  produced  any  powerful  effect  on 
society  in  Anglo-Saxon  England,  though  they  modified 
the  laws.  Still  they  began  the  history  of  the  religious 
forces  in  England,  which,  though  obscured  by  much  for- 
malism and  hypocrisy  and  weakened  by  selfishness,  have 
yet  worked  out  slowly  the  great  moral  and  humane  reforms 
in  the  history  of  that  country,  and  have  tendevl  with  other 
influences  to  make  it  one  of  the  great  leaders  of  modern 
progress. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

EDUCATION   IN   THE   MIDDLE  AGES. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  peculiar  interpretation 
given  by  the  early  Fathers,  especially  by  Augustine,  to 
the  Old  Testament,  and  their  views  of  inspiration,  often 
caused  the  Church  to  be  opposed  to  science  and  mental 
progress.  Christianity,  however,  in  its  essential  power, 
tends  to  open  the  intellect  to  truth ;  to  cultivate  the 
humility  and  the  fair-mindedness  which  especially  enable 
the  mind  to  see  what  is,  as  it  is  ;  and,  awakening  the  whole 
moral  nature,  to  indirectly  arouse  the  purely  intellectual 
faculties. 

The  mental  stimulus  given  to  Europe  in  different  ages 
by  non-Christian  forces,  is  ever  to  be  gratefully  acknow- 
ledged. Roman  law,  Greek  and  Roman  literature  have 
not  yet  spent  their  influences  on  human  progress.  Arabic 
science  had  for  one  period  a  prodigious  power.  Yet  it 
becomes  increasingly  evident  that  the  races  which  have 
been  partially  (though  imperfectly)  moulded  by  Chris- 
tianity, are  to  be  the  leading  powers  in  the  intellectual 
and  scientific  progress  of  mankind.  The  especial  truths 
of  Christ  were  not  apparently  intended  to  affect  science 
or  intellectual  advancement.  Yet,  being  in  harmony  with 
the  most  complete  and  healthy  moral  condition  of  man, 
they  did  so  arouse  and  dignify  the  whole  nature  as  to 
fit  it  for  high  mental  progress.  They  tended  to  form  a 
candid,    generous,    self-forgetting   character,  intensely  in- 


2i8  CESTA    CHRIS TL 

terested  in  moral  truths,  and  things  in . seen  and  eternal  ; 
a  character  which  would  naturally  also  concern  itself  with 
other  researches,  beside  those  religious.  Hence  it  is  proba- 
bly, that  for  eighteen  centuries,  the  Christian  believer  has 
been  the  especial  leader  in  science  ;  for  we  include  under 
the  "  Christian "  character,  even  those  scientific  sceptics 
who  have  grown  up  under  all  the  peculiar  influences  of 
Christianity. 

The  Church,  it  must  be  admitted,  has  often  been  entirely 
false  to  the  candid,  charitable  and  humble  type  of  cha- 
racter, taught  by  the  Master.  Its  bigotry,  intellectual 
narrowness  and  one-sidedness,  its  opposition  to  science 
and  freedom  of  thought,  its  cruelty  towards  those  of  dif- 
fering opinion  and  indifference  to  intellectual  activity,  and 
its  want  of  charity,  have  no  foundation  or  excuse  in  the 
Gospels.  But,  while  lamenting  its  errors,  we  must  never 
forget  its  great  services  to  intellectual  progress.  In  ages 
of  brutal  violence  and  of  barbarous  ignorance,  the  religious 
associations  of  convents  and  monasteries  became  the 
shelter  of  learning  and  study.  The  classics  were  revived 
under  the  shades  of  the  cloister.  The  lamp  of  science  and 
literature  was  kept  burning  during  the  "  dark  ages "  in 
the  monk's  cell.  Manuscripts  were  painfully  copied  and 
the  relics  of  a  higher  intellectual  age  were  preserved  to 
animate  a  future  century.  Without  the  influence  of  these 
monasteries  and  churches,  Europe  would  have  sunk  into 
a  yet  darker  ignorance,  and  we  might  have  had  in  Ger- 
many, France  and  Italy,  the  history  repeated  of  the 
Byzantine  Empire  ; — a  degradation  and  ignorance  which 
would  require  the  shock  of  foreign  conquest  to  dispel  and 
remove. 

The  Christian  Church,  from  the  very  first  centuries, 
naturally  connected  itself  with  the  school.  The  child 
under  the  view   of  Christianity   took    (as  we    have  often 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS.  219 

said)  a  very  different  position  from  that  under  Roman  law 
or  classic  custom.  When  Christ  called  the  little  ones  to 
His  arms  and  blessed  them,  they  became  for  ever  con- 
secrated in  Christian  tradition.  Their  mental  condition 
must  also  not  be  neglected.  The  Councils  early  began 
to  consider  this. 

The  Council  of  Vaison  (529  A.D.)  thus  treats  of  edu- 
cation :  "  It  hath  seemed  good  to  us  that  priests  with 
parishes  should  receive  into  their  houses,  according  to  a 
sound  custom  in  Italy,  young  readers  to  whom  they  give 
spiritual  nourishment,  teaching  them  to  study,  to  attach 
themselves  to  holy  books  and  to  know  the  law  of  God." 
The  Synod  of  Orleans  (799)  thus  exhorts  :  "  Let  the  priest? 
in  villages  and  towns  hold  schools,  in  order  that  all  the 
children  entrusted  to  them,  can  receive  the  first  notion 
of  letters.  Let  them  take  no  money  for  their  lessons." 
{Theod.,  cap.  20.) 

The  Council  of  Chalons  (813)  decreed^  that  bishops 
should  establish  schools  where  both  literature  and  Scrip- 
tures should  be  taught.  Still  another  Council  proclaimed 
(859) :  "  Let  one  raise  everywhere  public  schools,  that  the 
Church  of  God  may  everywhere  gather  the  double  fruit  of 
religion."     {Cone.  Ling.,  cap.  10.) 

The  Council  of  Mayence  (813)  orders  the  priests  to 
exhort  the  fathers  of  families  to  send  children  to  schools 
opened  in  monasteries,  in  order  that  they  may  learn  to 
pray  and  be  fortified  in  the  Christian  faith.  Another 
Council  (826)  at  Rome  orders  three  kinds  of  schools  to 
be  founded  in  all  Christendom  ;  firstly,  episcopal  schools 
in  towns  ;  secondly,  village  schools  ;  and  thirdly,  wherever 
necessary. 

'  ".  .  .  lit  episcopi  scholas  constiluant  in  <iiiibus  et  litteraria 
solertia  disciplinae  et  sacrae  Scripturae  documenta  discantur."  {jConc 
Cub.,  cap.  3.) 


220  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

The  Council  of  Trent  commands  that  the  children  of 
the  poor  have  at  least  one  master  to  teach  poor  scholars 
grammar  gratuitously.^  Charlemagne  had  already  (789) 
given  these  wise  instructions :  "  Let  one  open  schools  to 
teach  children  to  read  ;  let,  in  every  monastery,  in  every 
bishopric,  some  one  teach  psalms,  writing,  arithmetic,  gram- 
mar, and  employ  correct  copies  of  holy  books  ;  for  often 
men  seeking  to  pray  to  God,  pray  badly  on  account  of 
the  unfaithfulness  of  copyists."  {Cap.  Ecc,  61-66.) 

A  beautiful  letter  on  this  topic,  nominally  from  this 
remarkable  man,  has  come  down  to  us,  addressed  to  the 
Abbot  of  Fulda  (787  A.D.):  "During  past  years  we  have 
often  received  letters  from  different  monasteries,  informing 
us  that  at  their  sacred  services,  the  brethren  offered  up 
prayers  on  our  behalf;  and  we  have  observed  that  the 
thoughts  contained  in  those  letters,  though  in  themselves 
most  just,  were  expressed  in  uncouth  language.  And  while 
pious  devotion  dictated  the  sentiments,  the  unlettered 
tongue  was  unable  to  express  them  aright.  Hence  there 
has  arisen  in  our  mind  the  fear,  lest  if  the  skill  to  write 
correctly  were  thus  lacking,  so  too  would  the  power  of 
rightly  comprehending  the  sacred  Scripture  be  far  less 
than  was  fitting.  And  we  all  know,  that  though  verbal 
errors  be  dangerous,  errors  of  the  understanding  are  yet 
more  so.  We  exhort  you,  therefore,  not  only  not  to 
neglect  the  study  of  letters,  but  to  apply  yourselves  thereto 
with  that  humility  which  is  well  pleasing  to  God  ;  so  that 
you  may  be  able  to  penetrate  with  greater  ease  and  cer- 
tainty the  mysteries  of  the  Holy  Scripture.  For  as  these 
contain  images,  tropes  and  similar  figures,  it  is  impossible 
to  doubt  that  a  reader  will  arrive  far  more  readily  at  the 
spiritual   sense,    according    as  he    is  better   instructed    in 

*  " .  .  .  qui  clericos  aliosque  scholajres  pauperes  grnmmaticam 
gratis  doceat."     {Cone.  Trid.  occ.) 


LETTER   OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  221 

learning.  Let  there  therefore  be  chosen  for  this  work,  men 
who  are  both  able  and  wilHng  to  learn  and  also  desirous 
of  instructing  others  ;  and  let  them  apply  themselves  to 
the  work  with  a  zeal  equal  to  the  earnestness  with  which 
we  recommend  it  to  them. 

"  It  is  our  wish  that  you  may  be  what  it  behoves  the 
soldiers  of  the  Church  to  be,  religious  in  heart,  pure  in  act, 
eloquent  in  speech,  so  that  all  that  approach  your  house, 
in  order  to  invoke  the  Divine  Master,  or  to  behold  the 
excellence  of  your  religious  life,  may  be  edified  in  be- 
holding you,  and  instructed  in  hearing  you  discourse  or 
chant,  and  return  home,  rendering  thanks  to  God  most 
high."     {Const,  de  Scholis.  Bahise.) 

We  have  again  an  instruction  of  Theodolfus  (796  A.D.), 
under  Charlemagne  : 

"  Let  the  elders  found  schools  through  the  towns  and 
villages  ;  and  if  any  of  the  faithful  desire  their  little  chil- 
dren to  be  commended  to  them  for  learning  liberal  studies, 
let  them  not  refuse  to  receive  them,  but  teach  them  with 
the  utmost  charity."  ^ 

All  these  exhortations  were  not  without  their  effect,  and 
great  numbers  of  schools  sprang  up  throughout  Christen- 
dom ;  an  immense  quantity  of  manuscripts  were  also 
copied  by  the  monks. 

From  the  sixth  to  the  fifteenth  centuries  there  was  a 
deep  interest  in  the  monasteries  in  copying  and  binding 
manuscripts,  especially  of  classic  authors.  The  following 
striking  words  are  from  a  monk  who  has  exerted  a  deep 
influence  on  the  world :  "  Do  not  trouble  yourself  at  the 
fatigue  of  your  work,  for  God,  who  is  the  source  of  every 
good  and  just  labour,  will  give  the  reward,  according  to 
your  efforts,  in  eternity.     When  you   shall    be  no  more, 

'  Presbyteri  per  villas  etvicos  scholas  habeant  et  si  quilibet  fideliuM 
suos  parvulos  ad  discendas  literas,  etc. 


222  GESTA    CHRIS TL 

those  who  will  read  the  books,  once  copied  by  you  with 
elegance,  will  pray  for  you  ;  and  as  he  who  gives  a  glass 
of  cold  water  does  not  lose  his  reward,  so  /le  who  gives 
forth  the  living  water  ^i  wisdom,  will  receive  more  surely 
his  recompense  in  heaven."  ^ 

A  Council  (1179)  proclaims  :  "As  the  Church  of  God  is 
provider  of  those  who  have  need  of  the  nourishment  of 
such,  as  well  as  of  those  who  fail  of  success  of  body ;  in 
order  that  the  poor  whose  relatives  fail  of  resources  may 
have  the  possibility  of  learning  to  read  and  to  be  in- 
structed, we  appoint  in  every  Cathedral  church  a  master 
to  instruct  clerks  and  poor  scholars.  .  .  .  Let  one  re- 
establish this  in  monasteries  where  it  has  existed  anciently; 
but  let  no  one  demand  pay  for  teaching."    {Cone.  Co)icl.) 

All  classes  studied  in  these  monastic  schools,  so  that  rich 
and  poor  were  brought  together  on  the  field  of  learning. 
Nor  were  the  popes  altogether  wanting  to  the  intellectual 
movement.  Pope  Innocent  IV.  (1254)  publicly  recom- 
mended philosophic  study  instead  of  legal.  A  decree  of 
Clement  V.  directed  Hebrew,  Arabic  and  Chaldee  to  be 
taught  in  the  monasteries.  Sylvester  II.  is  said  to  have 
introduced  Arabic  numbers  into  Christian  Europe. 

We  do  not  continue  the  enumeration  of  these  evidences 
of  the  services  of  the  Church  to  learning  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  because  they  are  only  indirectly  the  effect  of  Chris- 
tianity All  that  we  urge  is,  that  the  Christian  teachings, 
in  their  natural  and  legitimate  influence,  open  the  mind  of 
man  to  truth,  and  by  their  moral  power  awaken  the  whole 
nature  and  tlus  stimulate  the  intellect. 

The  position  of  the  Church  on  Biblical  inspiration,  and 
therefore  towards  science,  and  her  fierce  bigotry  towards 
differing  opinions,  receive  no  countenance  from  the  Mastet. 
1  Thomas  k  Kempis,  Doct.  Juv.,  c.  iv. 


CHRISTIANITY  STIMULATES    THE   INTELLECT.    223 

It  is  true  that  He  teaches  that  child-like  humility  and 
purity  will  lead  to  higher  spiritual  and  moral  truth  than 
mere  learning  or  scholarship.  And  Paul  proclaims  that 
in  a  future  existence,  the  moral  powers  will  exist  when 
intellectual  acquirements  have  been  found  to  be  of  little 
worth. 

But  neither  of  these  aspects  belittle  science  in  this 
world.  Indeed,  the  Christian  "  simplicity  "  is  one  of  the 
guarantees  to  the  scholar  that  he  will  attain  truth  and  not 
be  led  away,  as  have  been  so  many,  by  the  false  lights  of 
conceit  and  prejudice.  The  whole  world  might  be  entirely 
inspired  with  the  Faith  of  Christ,  and  yet  no  obstacle 
offered  anywhere  to  the  freest  scientific  research,  but 
the  path  of  knowledge  be  made  easier,  in  that  all  men 
sought  justice  and  mercy  and  truth  was  the  holiest  thing. 


CHAPTER    XXL 

SERFDOM  AND  SLAVERY  IN   THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

Under  the  Romans,  in  the  Later  Empire,  as  we  ha/e 
already  said,  serfdom  arose  almost  naturally  from  the 
universal  disorder  and  chaos  of  society.  The  slave,  if 
freed,  could  not  protect  himself,  and  preferred  the  state 
of  half  freedom  and  of  safety  which  serfdom  offered.  The 
small  farmer  found  himself  better  guarded  from  robbers 
and  invaders,  by  attaching  himself  as  serf  {inqtiiliniis)  to 
the  estate  of  some  powerful  nobleman  or  leader.  The 
wealthy  patron  at  Rome  rewarded  his  faithful  clients  by 
bestowing  on  them  parcels  of  land  in  the  provinces,  where 
they  were  attached,  as  colofii,  to  the  soil  ;  and  again,  the 
government  settled  bodies  of  prisoners  or  immigrants 
on  large  districts  of  public  land,  and  made  them  serfs  to 
the  soil.  These  ^  coloni  (or  adscriptitii)  were  considered  as 
free-born,  but  attached  to  the  soil ;  they  could  fall  into 
slavery,  and  if  they  ran  away  from  their  estates,  they 
might  be  punished  with  servitude.  Their  marriage  was 
held  legitimate,  and  the  children,  by  a  mild  provision  due 
to  religious  influences,  followed  the  condition  of  the  father; 
they  were  excluded  from  the  army  and  from  public 
honours,  but  could  become  priests  with  the  consent  of  the 
master ; — this  provision  showing  one  mode  in  which  the 
Church  could  indirectly  emancipate  them.    They  were  freed 

'  Du  Cange,  Coloni. 

334 


CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCE    UPON  SLAVERY.        22 <; 

from  any  tax  to  the  government,  and  could  only  be  sold 
with  the  land  ;  the  land  could  not  be  sold  without  them. 
As  far  back  as  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  legacy  left  by  a  mas- 
ter of  a  serf  not  attached  to  an  estate,  was  not  good  in 
law.^  A  coloiiiis  could  be,  under  certain  circumstances,  a 
freeholder.  Salvian  speaks  of  the  poor  farmers  whr>  had 
made  themselves  serfs  for  the  sake  of  protection. 

As  we  have  noticed  before,  the  Roman  laws  modified 
by  the  new  teachings  began  at  once  to  protect  the  serfs. 
The  penalty  of  death  was  denounced  in  Gaul  on  him  who 
should  seize  the  persons  of  serfs  or  serf-stewards  (villici) 
in  payment  of  debts  or  taxes.  The  laws  of  Constantine 
forbade  the  separation  of  near  relatives  among  slaves  of 
the  soil  ;  husband  could  not  be  separated  from  wife,  nor 
parents  from  children.^ 

A  runaway  slave  or  serf  who  had  been  free  for  twenty 
years,  or  had  held  a  public  office,  or  had  been  in  military 
service,  or  had  voted  in  the  assembly,  was  presumed  to  be 
free,  and  could  defend  his  own  rights.  A  free-born  person, 
or  one  who  became  a  slave  by  violence,  could  always 
reclaim  his  liberty.^  I'he  child  became  free,  even  if  the 
mother  had  been  enslaved  within  the  nine  months  before  its 
birth  ;  or  if  the  mother  was  a  slave  and  was  emancipated 
without  her  own  knowledge,  the  child  was  free.  The  effect 
of  the  Faith  from  Galilee  was  to  make  all  the  presumptions 
in  favour  of  liberty.  Freed  slaves  became  Roman  citizens 
in  the  presence  of  the  assembly  {ecclesia)  and  the  bishops 
who  signed  the  acts  of  manumission.  The  clergy  did  not 
need  such  formalities,  but  could  free  by  word  of  mouth.^ 

*  Si  quis  inquilinos  sine  praediis  quibus  adhaerent  legaverit,  inutile 
est  legatum.     {D.  de  legai.,  11,  12.) 

^  Cod.  Theod.,  11,  25,  i. 
'  Ibid.,  iv.  7,  2. 

*  Ibid.y  iv.  7,  II. 


426  GESTA    CHRISTI 

The  various  Church  Councils  thundered  their  anathemas 
at  those  v/ho  re-enslaved  those  freed  under  religious  forms. 
The  reformed  law  under  the  influences  from  the  Gospel 
teaching  differed  from  the  Roman  law  in  admitting  a  kind 
of  marriage  between  slaves  {contuberniiiin),  for  the  reason 
that  "  We  have  a  common  Father  in  Heaven."  ^ 

Both  slavery  and  serfdom  descended  into  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  Christian  Church  struggled  to  a  certain  degree 
against  these  abuses.  But,  whether  this  organization  was 
faithful  or  not  to  its  Master,  the  spirit  of  Christianity 
worked  continually  on  individuals,  and  thus  on  society,  to 
mitigate  and  remove  these  evils.  Still  slavery  in  the 
Middle  Ages  presented  some  of  its  most  peculiar  features. 
Up  to  the  twelfth  century,  there  was  an  absolute  power 
of  the  master  over  the  life  of  the  slave.  After  this,  only 
a  slight  fine  was  inflicted  for  his  death,  while  cruel  punish- 
ments by  the  owner  were  permitted.  The  latter  had  also 
full  control  over  the  slave's  property  and  earnings.  Even 
the  marriage  was  not  held  fully  equal  to  the  Christian  tie. 
For  several  centuries  after  Christ,  the  barbarian  nations 
did  not  receive  benediction,  or  hold  religious  ceremonials 
at  the  nuptials  of  slaves.  When  this  began  to  possess  more 
the  character  of  a  legal  union,  a  slave  marrying  without 
the  consent  of  his  master  was  liable  to  severe  punishment, 
even  of  death  ;  this  was  later  reduced  to  a  fine  alone.  All 
the  children  of  the  slave  became  the  property  of  the  mas- 
ter, and  could  be  sold  like  any  other  property. 

The  slave  had  no  title  to  anything  but  his  clothes 
and  subsistence ;  if  he  had  a  property  {peciilinm)  given 
him  by  his  master,  he  could  not  save  out  of  it.  All  his 
effects  at  his  death  fell  to  his  master.  He  was  distin- 
guished by  his  dress  and  appearance  from  other  classes ; 

*  ,    ,    .     quia  unum  pat  rem  habemus  in  coelo. 


ACTS  FAVOURABLE    TO  SLAVES,  227 

even  his  testimony  could  not  be  received  against  freemen. 
From  this  condition  of  severe  bondage  there  was,  through- 
out Europe,  a  gradual  and  often  unnoticed  passage  to 
serfdom. 

As  early  as  119  A.D.  we  hear  that  Hermes,  a  Prefect  of 
Rome,  being  converted,  presented  1,250  slaves  for  baptism, 
all  having  been  freed.  Another  Prefect,  Chromatins  (284 
A.D.),  after  his  conversion  to  Christianity,  is  related  to  have 
freed  40  slaves,  first  having  baptized  them,  with  the  words : 
"  Those  who  begin  to  be  children  of  God  ought  not  to  be 
slaves  of  man." 

Thirty-seven  Church  Councils  are  reported  to  have 
passed  acts  favourable  to  slaves.  In  the  year  305,  any 
master  ill-treating  his  slaves  is  condemned  ;  in  517,  the 
murderer  of  a  slave  is  excommunicated  ;  in  549,  the  right 
of  asylum  in  a  Christian  church  is  offered  to  the  runaway, 
and  slaves  freed  by  the  Church  are  protected  ;  in  666, 
bishops  or  priests  ill-treating  slaves  are  severely  punished. 
In  441,  emancipation  is  protected  and  encouraged  ;  in  585, 
the  ornaments  and  property  of  the  Church  are  permitted 
to  be  sold  for  ransoming  slaves ;  in  566,  Christians  are 
forbid  reducing  freemen  to  slavery,  and  in  922,  no  Chris- 
tian is  permitted  to  enslave  a  fellow  Christian.  In  656, 
any  slave  compelled  to  work  upon  Sundays  becomes  free 
by  the  fact,  or  if  he  be  held  over  the  font  for  baptism. 
This  idea  that  baptism  made  free,  existed  even  as  late  as 
the  American  colonial  history,  when  American  masters 
hesitated  to  baptize,  lest  by  the  act  they  freed  their  slaves.^ 

The   forbidding   the   labour  of  slaves   on  Sunday  and 

*  There  are  two  acts  reported  of  the  Virginia  Colonial  Assembly, 
assuring  to  the  masters  the  undisturbed  condition  of  slavery,  after 
the  baptism  of  their  slaves.  (Anderson's  Hist,  of  Col.  Ch.,  vol.  ii. 
p.  552  ;  vol.  iii.  p.  227.)  See  also  Hefelen,  Condliengeschichte,  and 
Landon's  Manual  of  Councils. 


42^  GESTA   CHRIST  I. 

Festival  days  was  a  humane  protection  ;  the  scourging  of 
slaves  or  drivhig  away  their  cattle  was  denounced  under 
the  strictest  penalties.  The  West-Gothic  laws  were  es- 
pecially under  the  influences  of  the  Church  ;  and  they  are 
remarkable  as  carefully  protecting  the  honour  and  the 
marriage  of  bondmen.  Under  them,  the  serf  could  trans- 
mit and  inherit  property,  and  appear  in  a  court  of  law. 
The  monasteries  gradually  ceased  to  sell  serfs,  and  forbade 
their  exchange.  Step  by  step  this  class  could  give  testi- 
mony, and  certain  individuals  act  as  judges  ;  they  were 
allowed  to  carry  on  trades  and  even  to  win  knighthood. 
In  the  twelfth  century,  Adrian  IV.  confirmed  the  mar- 
riage of  slaves  against  the  will  of  the  masters,  in  the 
most  solemn  manner.^  The  property  of  serfs  was  more 
and  more  secured  to  them.^  The  Church  encouraged 
manumissions  at  festivals,  at  births  and  deaths  ;  and 
made  all  forms  of  manumission  full  forms  of  freedom.  It 
enacted  laws  that  if  a  serf  saved  a  certain  sum,  the 
master  was  obliged  to  free  him  on  payment  of  this  ;  and 
it  made  all  bondmen  free  who  entered  the  service  of 
Church  or  State. 

The  Christian  belief  and  impulse  tended  everywhere  to 
undermine  both  serfdom  and  slavery ;  and  encouraged  the 
ransoming  of  slaves  and  prevented  the  slave  trade,  espe- 
cially the  selling  of  Christians. 

Among  much  similar  legislation,  the  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Chalons  (650  A.D.),  with  forty-four  bishops  in 
session,  ordered  that  no  Christian  slaves  should  be  sold 
outside   the   kingdom   of  Clovis,    with   the   words,    "The 

^  Si  contradicentibus  dominis  et  invitis,  matrimonia  servoriim 
contracta  fuerint,  nulla  ratione  sunt  propter  hoc  dissolvenda.  (Cap. 
I.  X.  4,  9). 

-  Non  licet  pecuniam  suam  servo  auferre  quam  ipse  labore  suo 
adquisiverit.     Egberti.  Conf.,  c.  35. 


RELIGIOUS  EMANCIPATION.  229 

highest  pity  and  religion  demand  that  Christians  should 
be  removed  entirely  from  the  bonds  of  servitude."^  The 
melancholy  trains  of  slaves  in  the  various  slave  markets  of 
Europe,  which  used  to  offend  the  eyes  of  the  humane,  were 
gradually  removed.  The  slave  trade  was  punished,  as  an 
act  of  "diabolic  inspiration"  in  the  ninth  century,  though 
this  indignation  did  not  reach  the  trade  in  heathen  slaves. 

An  edict^  of  Charles  le  Chauve  (864)  threatened  a  heavy 
fine  on  those  who  sold  beyond  sea  such  unfortunate 
persons  as  were  reduced  to  slavery  by  famine. 

It  was  a  not  uncommon  practice  for  the  poor  in  the 
Middle  Ages  to  sell  themselves  into  slavery,  or  to  become 
slaves  by  debt.  The  new  humane  legislation  permitted 
such  persons  to  buy  their  freedom  by  paying  the  purchase 
money  with  one-fifth  in  addition,  or  by  a  sufficient  duration 
of  the  service. 

The  religious  element  in  emancipation  is  seen  strikingly 
in  the  forms  of  manumission  of  the  Middle  Ages,  trans- 
mitted to  us  by  Marculfus,  and  in  the  words  of  those  urging 
the  duty  of  freedom,  as  well  as  in  the  ceremonies  used. 
Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century, 
proclaims  that  inasmuch  as  the  Redeemer  of  men  had 
taken  upon  Himself  humanity,  to  restore  us  to  liberty,  so  it 
becomes  us  to  restore  those  men  whom  nature  had  made 
free,  but  the  law  of  nations  had  made  slaves,  to  their 
natural  condition — namely,  liberty.^     The  influence  of  the 

'  Pietatis  maximae  et  religionis  intuitus  ut  captivitatis  vinculum 
omnino  a  Christianis  redimatur,  etc. 

^  Et  quia  hominum  ingenia,  qui  non  Deum  timent,  diabolo 
suadente,  multa  mala  excogitant,  potest  fieri  ut  qui  tales  homines 
liberos,  necessitate  cogente,  in  servos  suscipiunt,  etc.    {^Ed.  Ris.,  c.  34.) 

^  Cum  Redemptor  noster.  totius  conditor  naturae  .  .  .  humanam 
carnem  voluerit  assumere  ut  .  .  .  pristinje  nos  restituerit  libertati, 
salubriter  iigitur,  ut  homines  .  ,  ,  libertati  reddantur.  {Greg; 
Mag.  op.  Pol.,  lib.  iv.) 


23©  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

Stoical  jurists,  as  well  as  of  Christianity,  in  these  ideas,  is 
vvorth  noting. 

A  common  mode  of  manumission  was  for  the  master  to 
lead  the  slave  with  a  torch  around  the  altar ;  he  then  took 
hold  of  the  horns  of  the  altar,  and  the  earnest  words  of 
liberation  were  spoken.  One  form,  given  by  Muratori,  of 
bestowing  freedom,  uttered  these  solemn  words  :  "  For  fear 
of  Almighty  God,  and  for  the  cure  of  my  soul,  I  liberate 
thee,  and  may  the  angel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  deem  me 
worthy  of  a  place  among  His  saints."^ 

Another  form  utters  the  prayer  of  the  master,  that  he 
may  by  this  act  attain  to  eternal  blessedness  and  shake  off 
the  yoke  of  servitude  to  his  sins."  A  common  phrase  of 
emancipation  is  "  pro  remedio  animse  meae,"  "  for  the  cure 
of  my  soul,"  while  the  heirs  are  warned  through  their  love 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  not  to  return  the  slave  to  bondage. 
Another  legal  expression  is,  "  I,  in  the  name  of  God,  think- 
ing of  the  love  of  God,  or  eternal  retribution  ...  do 
free  this  slave  from  the  bonds  of  servitude."^  Such  words 
3.S pro peccatis  niiniiendis,  "for  lessening  my  sins,"  or  "bond 
and  free  are  one  in  Christ,"  or  "  forgive,  and  it  shall  be  for- 
given," show  the  spirit  animating  the  framers  of  these 
ancient  wills.  Still  another  form  says,  "  I,  J.  N.,  thinking 
how  I  can  attain  to  the  absolution  of  my  sins,  and  looking 
to  the  time  when  the  slave  shall  be  freed  from  his  master, 
do  hereby  emancipate  my  slaves,  fifty  in  number,"  etc. 
Others  look  forward  to  the  Divine  tribunal,  and  would 
show  mercy,  even  as  they  hope  for  mercy  ;  others  speak  of 
"  Divine  compassion  inspiring."*     Another  form  of  manu- 

1  .  .  .  absolve  te,  Clerisa,  pro  timore  omnipotentis  Dei  et  reinedio 
animae,  etc. 

2  .  .  .  per  quam  ad  eternam  beatitudinam  valcat  pervenire,  etc. 

'  Ego,  in  nomine  Dei,  cogitans  de  Dei  amore  vel  asterna  retribU" 
tionc     .     .     .  ab  omni  vinculo  servitiitis     .     .     .     absolvo. 

*  Ego,  in  nomine  Dei    .    .    .     ut  quando  de  liac  luce  niigravero^ 


FORMS  OF  EMANCIPATION.  231 

mission  (Muratori),  wherein  a  countess  grants  freedom  to  a 
female  slave  (1056  A.D.),  makes  this  humane  appeal :  "  Thus 
we  who  are  formed  of  the  earth,  in  like  manner  ought  to 
pity  our  fellow-creatures  .  .  .  and  whatever  hath  been 
bequeathed  unto  us,  we  ought  to  make  free."^ 

This  historian,  who  is  an  impartial  observer  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  holds  that  the  great  moving  force  in  bestow- 
ing freedom  is  the  love  implanted  by  the  Christian  reli- 
gion.- Many  charters  and  epitaphs  bore  the  expression  of 
"  liberty  for  the  benefit  of  the  soul."  Even  as  late  as  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  early  feelings  in  regard  to  Christian 
emancipation  were  kept  up,  and  it  was  the  custom  in 
France  to  release  caged  pigeons  on  Christian  festivals,  and 
prisoners  were  freed  "  in  the  name  of  Christ."  The  un- 
wonted respect  for  humanity  was  shown  in  that  term  used 
in  the  new  rites  of  manumission,  where  freedom  was  called 
ingenuitas,  or  "  nobleness,"  as  of  one  free-born.^  One  form 
emancipates  a  slave  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  so  that  he 
may  henceforth  lead  a  free  life,  as  if  he  had  been  born 
from  free  or  noble  parents."*  If  a  slave  became  priest,  and 
his  master  did  not  oppose  it,  or  had  not  reclaimed  him  for 
a  year  after  his  ordination,  he  was  free.     One  can  see  how 


anima  mea  ante  Christi  tribunal  :  veniam  merear  accipere  •  .  . 
libero  servos  meos — inspirante  divina  misericordia. 

^  Ita  nos  qui  de  terra  formati  sumus,  etc.     A7it.  Hal.,  p.  858. 

2  Sed  causa  frequentior  manumittendi  miseruni  hoc  hominum 
genus  fuit  Pietas  et  Caritas  erga  Deum,  cujus  amore  plerumque  manu- 
missiones  celebratte  reperiuntur.    p.  875.     Muratori,  ibid. 

^  .  .  .  ne  eorum  ingenuitas  vel  nobilitas  vilescat.  {Dip.  Cart. 
Calv.,  844  A.D.) 

*  Igitur  ego  in  Dei  nomine  et  conjux  mea,  pro  remedio  anims  vel 
retribut'one  ^eterna,  te  ex  familia  nostra,  a  prsesente  die,  ab  omni 
vinculo  servitutis  absolvimus.  Ita  ut  deinceps,  tanquam  si  ab 
ingenuis  parentibus  fuisses  procreatus  vel  natus,  vitam  ingenuara 
ducas.     {Form.  Sec,  LXC.    Horn,  xii.) 


232  GESTA   CHRISTl 

directly  this  must  have  acted  in  lessening  the  number  of 
the  slaves. 

Peasants^  Wars. — The  condition  of  the  peasants  during 
many  centuries  in  Europe  forms  one  of  the  most  melan- 
choly pictures  in  human  annals  They  were  frequently 
bound  to  the  soil ;  sometimes  they  could  not  bequeath 
any  property  to  their  descendants  ;  the  master  was  allowed 
at  their  death  to  appropriate  the  choicest  animal  or  most 
valuable  product  of  the  farm  ;  they  were  obliged  to  sell 
to  him  at  his  own  prices,  or  to  take  certain  necessaries 
from  him  at  rates  fixed  by  him  ;  their  children  were  held 
as  almost  the  property  of  the  master,  and  the  odious  droit 
de  seigneur,  or  its  equivalent  in  money,  stamped  upon 
their  feelings  the  sense  of  their  degradation. 

Even  where  the  person  was  free,  the  serf  was  subject  to 
innumerable  taxes  and  burdens  ;  he  must  keep  his  master's 
buildings  in  order,  do  public  work  on  the  highways  or  for 
the  baron  sometimes  for  five  days  in  the  week  ;  allow 
his  fields  to  be  trampled  down  and  his  crops  wasted  by  the 
gentry  in  their  hunt  for  game.  Even  where  he  could  not 
be  sold  away  from  the  land,  he  could  be  disposed  of  with 
the  estate,  or  could  be  driven  off  by  persecution.  His  food 
was  bad,  his  dwelling  wretched,  his  children  were  without 
education,  he  was  robbed  of  all  things,  and  lived  without 
hope,  hating  his  master  and  the  world  which  thus  ground 
him  to  the  dust. 

It  may  well  be  believed  that  the  renewal  of  the  Christian 
message  in  the  Protestant  Reformation,  preaching  afresh 
the  dignity  of  the  "child  of  God  "  and  the  "joint-heir  with 
Christ,"  and  giving  a  strange  emphasis  to  the  Christian  idea 
of  human  brotherhood,  fell  upon  these  masses  of  wronged 
human  beings  like  an  inspiration  from  on  high.  The  serfs 
saw  clearly  that  their  old  religious  teachers  were  imposing 
upon  them,  and  that  such  an  injustice  as  serfdom  could 


PEASANTS'  REVOLTS.  233 

not  be  reconciled  with  the  teachings  of  Christ.  They 
accepted  the  reformed  doctrines  as  a  new  gospel  of  liberty. 
In  different  countries  they  burst  out  against  this  oppres- 
sion of  ages,  and  proclaimed  freedom  in  Church  and  State. 
Unfortunately,  most  of  the  chroniclers  of  the  Middle  Ages 
have  been  on  the  side  of  the  masters,  and  we  know  but 
little  of  the  real  aims  and  designs  of  the  much-oppressed 
serfs.  They  committed  great  excesses,  no  doubt,  but  these 
were  the  natural  reaction  against  centuries  of  wrong  and 
injustice.  The  explosion,  however,  aided  in  finally  re- 
moving the  heavy  burdens  which  had  so  long  weighed  on 
them. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  especially,  these  outbreaks  burst 
forth  in  Germany.  Many  associations  were  formed  among 
the  peasants  to  obtain  release  from  their  burdens,  and  these 
all  had  religious  mottoes  or  devices.  One  is  spoken  of  on 
the  Upper  Rhine,^  which  had  a  banner  with  a  picture  of 
Christ  crucified,  before  whom  kneeled  a  serf,  with  the 
legend:  "Nothing  but  God's  justice!"  The  demands 
made  by  the  Schwabian  peasants  in  the  insurrection  of 
1525  ran  somewhat  thus  :-  (ist)  "  It  hath  been  the  custom 
till  now  to  hold  us  for  serfs,  which  is  a  pity,  seeing  that 
Christ  hath  bought  us  and  redeemed  us  with  His  blood  "  ; 
and  (5th)  "  It  is  found  in  the  Holy  Writ  that  we  are  free, 
and  we  .  .  .  desire  to  be  free,  ...  we  would  have 
God  as  our  Lord,  and  know  our  brother  in  our  neighbour. 
.  .  .  We  would  willingly  obey  our  chosen  rulers,  but  we 
have  no  doubt  that  they,  as  true  and  good  Christians,  will 
willingly  free  us  from  serfdom,  or  prove  to  us  from  the  Gospel 
that  we  are  serfs."     The  fourth  article  claims  on  religious 


•  Zi?nmerman,  ^.  153.     Der  Bauentkrieg. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.   ii.   pp.   99,   102,      See  also   Benson's   Geschichte  des 
Bauernkrieges,  p.  172. 


234  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

grounds,  the  use  of  wild  game,  and  wood  from  the  forests. 
Article  sixth  protests  against  the  increase  of  burdens  upon 
an  oppressed  people.  It  is  striking  that  with  the  demand 
for  freedom  from  feudal  burdens,  is  included  always  that 
for  a  free  and  elected  clergy.  In  conclusion,  say  the 
peasants,  "  If  any  of  these  articles  are  opposed  to  Holy 
Writ,  and  this  can  be  proven  to  us,  we  will  give  them 
up.  The  Peace  of  Christ  be  with  us  all ! "  The  oath  of 
the  peasants  banded  in  insurrection  near  Bietigheim,  is 
similar  in  tone :  "  Because  God  hath  ever  enlightened  us 
with  His  word,  and  hath  made  known  to  us  how 
utterly  we  have  been  despoiled,  not  of  daily  bread, 
but  of  eternal ;  and  because  He  lendeth  us  power  and 
might  according  as  we  firmly  believe,"  etc.  Then  follow 
similar  demands  for  a  free  Gospel  and  freedom  from  the 
bonds  and  burdens  of  serfdom.  The  peasants  of  Elsass  ^ 
proclaimed  that  "  the  Gospel  should  be  preached  after  its 
true  meaning,  for  it  hath  been  preached  for  selfishness,  and 
great  burdens  have  been  laid  on  the  poor  peasant ; "  they 
demand  freedom  from  tithes,  from  taxes  on  woods  and 
waters  and  game,  and  that  serfdom  be  done  away.  The 
peasants  on  the  Neckar,^  under  the  inspiration  of  the 
free  ideas  of  Christianity,  went  beyond  its  teachings,  and 
claimed  an  absolute  equality,  under  the  Emperor,  of  all 
men.  "  All  worldly  lords  are  to  be  reformed,  so  that  the 
poor  cannot  be  burthened  by  them  beyond  the  rules  of 
Christian  freedom  :  the  same  law  is  to  be  for  the  highest 
and  lowest."  "  Princes  and  nobles  must  guard  the  poor 
and  hold  themselves  brotherly."  .  .  .  "All  cities  and 
parishes  are  to  be  reformed  in  divine  and  natural  rights 
after  the  principles  of  Christian  freedom."  In  England,  a 
little  before  this  (1356),  a  monk,  John  Balle,  had  preached 
liberty  and  equality  as  principles  of  the  Christian  Revela- 

*  Zimmerman.  '  Ibid, 


RELIGIOUS  IDEAS    OF  FREEDOM.  235 

tion.^  These  doctrines,  and  Wickliffe's  religious  influence 
(1360),  resulted  in  a  great  resistance  of  the  lower  classes  to 
serfdom  and  its  burdens.  The  English  peasants'  uprisings 
of  1381  proclaimed  the  entire  abolition  of  villcnage  ;  and 
Richard  II.  (13S0)  consented  to  the  doing  away  of  many 
of  its  vexatious  burdens  and  payments,  but  these  were 
subsequently  restored  by  Parliament.  During  the  century 
and  a  half  after  the  Peasant  Revolt,  says  Green  (p.  230), 
"  villenage  died  out  so  rapidly  that  it  became  a  rare  and 
antiquated  thing."  Stubbs  -  also  notes  that  the  result  of 
the  rising  of  1381  was,  that  "the  landlords  gave  up  the 
practice  of  demanding  base  services,"  and  emancipation 
was  greatly  advanced. 

We  have  touched  upon  these  remarkable  movements  of 
the  peasant  class  in  various  countries,  in  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries,  because  they  are  so  manifestly  con- 
nected with  the  liberalizing  influences  of  the  reformed 
preaching  of  Christianity.  They  did  not,  it  is  true,  succeed, 
but  they  undoubtedly  undermined  serfdom,  and  causea 
all  classes  to  be  more  ready  for  gradual  freedom.  They 
show  the  natural  and  inevitable  action  of  Christ's  teachings 
on  men's  minds,  where  they  have  long  been  oppressed  by 
injustice. 

Even  the  highest  classes  felt  this  inspiration  of  freedom 
through  the  Gospel.  The  Emperor  Sigismund  (1436) 
thus  proclaims :  "  It  is  an  unheard-of  thing  that  in  the 
holy  Christianity  one  should  be  so  proud  as  to  say  to 
a  man.  Thou  art  mine  !  "  "  For  whoever  is  baptized  and 
believeth,  be  he  noble  or  ignoble,  rich  or  poor,  he  is 
counted  among  the  members  of  Christ.  Whoever  there- 
fore   calleth   a    fellow-Christian    his    own,   he    is    not    a 

'  Inter  eos  aequa  libertas,  eadem  nobilitas,  par  dignitas,  similisque 
potestas.     (Quoted  by  Siigenheim^  p.  295.) 

^  Constitutional  History  0/ Etigland,  vol.  ii.  p.  463. 


236  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

Christian,   is  against   Christ,  and    all  the   commandments 
of  God  are  lost  on  him."^ 

The  process  of  emancipation  under  the  Christian  in- 
fluences was  often  gradual,  first  from  slavery  to  serfdom, 
and  then  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  form  of  serfdom.  The 
serfs  of  the  public  treasury  (fiscalini)  and  of  the  Church 
{ecclesiastici)  acquired  peculiar  privileges.  The  laws  for- 
bade them  to  be  reduced  to  the  condition  of  ordinary  serfs  ; 
they  had  a  right  to  their  own  property  ;  the  fines  to  pro- 
tect their  persons  were  double  those  for  other  serfs,  and 
one-half  of  those  for  freemen.  They  could  appear  in  court 
and  testify  ;  while  the  ordinances  of  the  Councils  protected 
them  from  forced  labour  and  oppression.  In  Burgundy 
and  France,  there  was  a  gradual  transition  in  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries  from  serfdom  to  a  condition  which  was 
intermediate  between  servitude  and  freedom.  Persons  in 
this  condition  acquired  the  right  to  their  own  property^ 
both  in  land  and  personal  effects ;  they  had  the  power  to 
transmit  to  descendants,  and  even  to  dispose  of  their  estate 
by  will,  or,  leaving  no  descendants,  the  State  inherited 
from  them.  They  could  use  their  Ortrn  property  to  pur- 
chase their  liberty. 

The  coloni,  as  we  have  said,  were  a  species  of  serfs 
under  Roman  law,  and  they  are  found  through  the  Middle 
Ages.  They  were  often  bound  to  public  labours  and  to 
forced  work  for  others.  Some  of  the  abuses  from  this 
system  extended  down  even  to  the  eighteenth  century  in 
the  Jura.  A  colonist  could  buy  and  possess  land,  and 
even  slaves,  but  could  only  sell  real  estate  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  "  Patron  "  ;  and  in  France  he  was  forbidden  to 
give  or  to  sell  to  another  seigneur.  He  could  transmit 
property  in  direct  lines,  but  in  collateral  only  tc  brothers 
and  .c^'iters  and  their  children. 

'  Ziiiunervian,  p.  107. 


MANUMISSION.  237 

Gradually  through  the  Middle  Ages,  there  was  a  tran- 
sition from  the  state  of  colonists  and  mainmortables  ^  to 
that  of  tenants  and  freeholders.  Among  the  serfs,  marriage 
was  not  permitted  outside  of  the  domain  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  master.  One  of  the  fruits  of  religious  influence 
on  the  Roman  law  was  that  in  a  mixed  marriage  of  a 
serf  woman  and  free  man,  the  children  did  not  follow  the 
mother,  but,  by  a  humane  principle,  the  best  condition.- 

Up  to  the  eleventh  century  there  were,  under  religious 
impulses,  isolated  acts  of  manumission  at  death-beds  and 
by  will.  The  crusades,  both  as  a  grand  movement  of  reli- 
gious enthusiasm,  and  as  breaking  up  classes  of  society, 
increased  the  tendency.  It  was  not  uncommon,  before 
starting  on  a  crusade,  for  a  noble  to  free  his  serfs,  as  an  act 
of  conscience  towards  God;  he  perhaps  going  to  his  death.^ 
Many  also  manumitted  in  order  to  raise  money  for  the 
expedition. 

In  the  eleventh  century.  Emperor  Conrad  speaks  of  the 
sale  of  human  beings  as  a  "  thing  nefarious,  and  detestable 
to  God  and  men."  ^ 

In  1096,  in   France,  Philip  I.  and   Louis  Le  Gros  (i  108) 

'  Main7norte  (the  dead  hand).  An  absolute  incapacity  to  transmit 
property — a  condition  of  serfdom.  Thus  ancient  French  ordinances 
say  :  Comme  creature  humaine  qui  est  formee  a  I'image  de  nostra 
Seigneur,  dole  generalment  estre  franche  par  droit  naturel,  .  .  . 
que  les  hommes  ...  en  laur  vivant  sont  reputes  ainsi  comme 
morts.  {Ch.  de  Val.  Ordon.,  vii.  12.)  See  Du  Cange  {Manns 
niorluce).     Homines  manus  mortuae  sunt  servi  glebae. 

2  Cod.  Theod.,  iv.  3  c.  ;  Just.,  xi.  67,  4.  It  is  singular  that  this 
humane  provision,  bequeathed  by  Christianity  through  the  Middle 
Ages,  was  dropped  in  the  American  Law  of  Slavery. 

^  Ego  Jerosolimam  profecturum  intelligens  a  viris  religiosis,  sa- 
pientibus  et  discretis  .  .  .  ne  si  posteris  et  successionibus  meis 
exemplum  hoc  rapine  et  exactionis  inique  relinquerem  .  .  .  om- 
nino  remisi  in  perpetuum.     {Lois  de  la  ville  de  Lt'lle.) 

*  .  .  .  etiam  ut  rem  Deo  hominibusque  detestabilem,  etc.  {Pertz^ 
xi.  38.) 


43S  GESTA    CHRISTL 

gave  examples  of  a  more  general  freeing  of  slaves.  The 
leading  nobles  and  clergy  granted  municipal  charters 
which  were  charters  of  emancipation. 

In  the  fourteenth  century,  the  Count  of  Valois,  brother 
of  Philip  the  Beautiful,  freed  the  serfs  of  his  comte  with 
the  words  :  "As  the  human  creature  who  has  been  formed 
in  the  image  of  our  Lord,  ought  to  be  free  by  natural 
right  ...  let  these  men  and  women  be  free,"  etc. 
In  1256  Bologna,  feeling  the  influences  working  through 
European  cities,  freed  all  its  serfs,  paying  an  indemnity 
to  the  masters,  and  decreeing  that  in  the  future  none  but 
freemen  should  inhabit  the  city,  with  the  remarkable 
words  :  "  Our  Lord  God  hath  established  at  the  origin  of 
things,  paradise,  and  hath  placed  man  there,  in  giving  him 
a  full  and  entire  liberty.  By  sin  all  the  human  race  hath 
been  poisoned,  that  which  was  immortal  becoming  mortal, 
liberty  perishing  in  servitude.  It  is  then  just  and  salutary 
that  men  freed  and  saved,  should  be  delivered  from  the 
bonds  of  servitude  in  which  the  abuse  of  force  has  en- 
chained them.  It  is  for  these  reasons  that  the  city  of 
Bologna,  which  has  always  combated  for  liberty,  re- 
membering the  past,  and  its  eyes  fixed  on  the  future,  in 
honour  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  hath  ransomed  all  the 
serfs  on  its  territory,  and  decreeth  that  it  would  not  suffer 
there  a  man  not  free."  ^ 

Many  efforts  are  recorded  of  St.  Louis  (13 15)  to  abolish 
mainmorte. 

Slavery  is  spoken  of  in  French  annals  up  to  the  twelfth 
century,  but  no  traces  appear  in  the  thirteenth,  as  many  oi 
the  laws  prove. 

The  slave  trade  was  common  in  Europe  in  the  tenth 
century,  as  is  abundantly  shown  in  the  papal  bulls  ;  there 

'  Istoria  di  Bologna,  Girarhacci,  quoted  by  Laurent.  {Sugenheim 
and  von  Raihner,  vol.  iii.  p.  16S.) 


CHRISTIAN  EMANCIPATION.  239 

are  but  few  traces  of  it,  however,  in  the  fifteenth  and  none 
in  the  seventeenth  ;  the  trade  was  ahnost  entirely  in 
heathen  captives.  In  Florence  as  late  as  1526,  there  was 
a  traffic  in  Mohammedan  slaves.  The  right  in  France  to 
sell  Christian  slaves  was  first  abolished,  and  finally  the 
whole  traffic  was  done  away  with. 

In  Germany,  the  code  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
Sachsenspiegcl,  or  "  Mirror,"  is  full  of  traces  of  Christian 
influence  against  slavery.  The  Lord  is  said  to  have  "  put 
poor  and  rich  equally  under  His  own  love."  (3,  42.) 
Slavery  is  declared  to  have  its  "  origin  from  unjust  cap- 
tivity"; and  quoting  the  Bible,  the  law  affirms^  that  man 
belongs  to  God  alone,  and  "  whoever  holds  him  as  slave, 
sins  against  the  power  of  the  Almighty."  The  stranger 
under  the  heathen  code  was  presumed  a  serf  or  slave  ; 
under  this,  the  presumption  was  of  liberty.  "  How  can 
those,"  asks  the  law,  "  who  are  not  permitted  to  give  them- 
selves to  slavery,  reduce  others  to  this  state  ?  At  the 
great  jubilee  year  of  the  Jews,  in  memory  of  the  Seventh 
Day  and  of  the  Rest  of  the  Lord,  did  not  one  give  liberty 
to  all  the  Israelites  who  had  become  slaves,  even  to  those 
who  had  not  desired  to  be  freed  .-*  " 

The  killing  of  a  slave  was  forbidden  in  the  strictest 
terms,^  and  the  "half- free"  were  not  allowed  to  hold  slaves, 
which  was  a  marked  softening  of  the  old  codes. 

The  abolition  of  slavery  in  Scandinavia  in  the  early 
centuries  is  unquestionably  the  effect  of  the  Christian 
religion.^  One  of  the  first  Christian  kings  of  Norway — 
Knut    the    Holy — at    the  end    of    the   eleventh    century, 

*  Ex  his  verbis  colliLjitur,  hominem  ad  Deum  pertinere  et  qui  eum 
occupat,  in  Omnipotentis  peccat  potestatis.     iSsp.,  3,  42.) 

^  Wisse  aber  dass  kein  Herr  seinen  Knecht  toedten  mag.  {Ibid.^ 
11,32.) 

•  Die  Aufhebttng  cler  Leibeigenschaft.     Sugenheim. 


240  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

publicly  proclaimed  that  slavery  should  be  abolished.  In 
1 2 14,  it  would  appear  from  the  laws^  that  it  had  almost 
ceased,  and  in  the  fourteenth  century  are  no  traces  of  it 
in  Norway  or  Denmark.  In  Sweden,  the  king  Magnus 
Eriksen  (1335)  proclaimed  that  in  honour  of  the  Holy 
Virgin  and  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul  of  his  father  and 
uncle,  no  Christian  should  be  held  in  his  kingdom  as  a 
slave.^  Owing  to  the  strong  religious  feeling  against  this 
injustice,  serfdom  did  not  take  deep  root  in  Norway  and 
Sweden.  This  conscientious  conviction  of  the  Norse 
people  was  strengthened  by  the  natural  independence  of 
a  brave  race,  and  the  consequent  weak  hold  which  the 
feudal  system  had  in  those  countries.  Nearly  all  the 
peasants  owned  land,  and  the  nobles  did  not  acquire  large 
estates.  Serfdom  and  all  its  attendant  curses  were  com- 
paratively unknown  in  that  portion  of  Scandinavia.  In 
Denmark,  however,  owing  to  the  many  wars  and  the 
greater  success  of  the  feudal  system,  considerable  numbers 
of  the  peasants  were  reduced  to  this  condition.  Terrible 
insurrections  broke  out  there  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  which  only  increased  the  burdens  of  the  un- 
fortunate serfs. 

The  religious  impulse  touched  one  king — Christian  II. 
(1513) — who  made  himself  remembered  as  the  "friend  of 
the  serf,"  and  who  forbade,  among  other  things,  "  the 
wicked  and  unchristian  custom  of  selling  and  giving  away 
free  peasants  "  :  he  permitted  also  the  free  migration  of 
serfs,  and  ordered  that  their  children  be  taught  various 
trades,  and  that  they  should  not  be  oppressed  with  heavy 
burdens.^ 

The  Middle  Ages,  however,  did  not  see  the  disappear- 
ance of  serfdom  in  that  portion  of  Europe. 

*  Die  AicfJiebung  der  Leibeigenschaft,  p.  542. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  542.  '  Ibid.,  p.  508. 


ENGLISH  SERFDOM.  241 

English  Slavery  and  Serfdom. — In  England,  as  upon  the 
Continent,  slavery  arose  from  various  causes  ;  from  birth, 
trom  captivity  in  war,  as  a  punishment  by  the  authorities, 
as  a  penalty  in  gambling  where  a  man  staked  himself, 
and  by  marriage.  By  the  Ripuarian  Law,  a  free  woman 
marrying  a  slave  became  a  slave  ;  by  the  Anglo-Saxon 
law,  under  the  Christian  teaching,  the  offspring  of  the  free 
and  slave  followed  the  condition  of  the  father,^  instead  of 
Hie  mother,  as  according  to  the  Roman  law. 

Residence  also  often  brought  about  slavery.  Die  Luft 
macht  eigen  ("  The  air  makes  the  thrall "),  says  some  old 
German  proverb.  If  runaways  were  found  living  on 
strange  properties,  they  could  be  enslaved.  The  blood- 
money,  or  zvergeld,  sometimes  included  bondage,  and  many 
debtors  became  slaves.  Thousands  of  Britons,  in  times  of 
famine,  during  the  first  century  after  the  Norman  Conquest, 
sold  themselves  into  thraldom.  Children  were  even  sold 
by  their  parents  to  escape  extreme  poverty.  "  If  a  Chris- 
tian," says  Theodosius  in  his  Penitentials,  "sell  another  into 
a  foreign  country,  he  will  not  be  worthy  to  have  repose  in 
the  midst  of  the  faithful  until  he  has  restored  to  liberty 
and  country  him  whom  he  sold.^  If  a  Christian  has  found 
another  Christian  wandering  and  vagabond,  whom  he  has 
seized  fraudulently  and  sold  as  slave,  he  ought  to  sit  no 
more  in  the  assembly  of  the  faithful,  until  he  hath  repaired 
his  fault  and  submitted  to  a  penitence  of  seven  years." 
"  A  father,"  says  another  passage  of  the  Penitentials, 
"  driven  by  necessity  hath  the  power  of  delivering  into 
servitude  a  son,  if  he  be  under  eight  years  ;  after  that  he 
hath  no  power,  ex-'jpt  by  the  will  of  the  son."^     When  a 


*  H.  I.,  Ixxvii.  12. 
2  Theod.  Pan.  i.,  5,  13. 

'  Pater  filium  servum  VII.  annorum,  necessitate  compalsus,  potes- 

R 


242  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

youth  had  pdsscd  the  age  of  thirteen,  he  had  the  power 
of  selling  himself  as  a  slave.^ 

In  Scotland  there  was  the  same  privilege.  "  Ilk  frey- 
man  may  lefF  his  fredome  gif  him  like  is." 

The  later  law  in  England  required  certain  conditions  : 
among  them,  that  the  sale  should  be  made  by  other  than 
the  man  himself.^ 

"  Though  any  one  sell  his  daughter  to  servitude,"  says 
an  old  English  law,  "  let  her  not  be  altogether  such  a 
theow  as  other  female  slaves.  He  ought  not  to  sell  her 
among  a  strange  folk."  ^ 

That  feature  of  slavery,  lower  than  anything  "brutal," — 
the  raising  children  for  the  slave  market, — was  not  unknown 
in  England.  It  is  alluded  to  frequently  by  the  historians,^ 
and  was  preached  against  with  righteous  indignation  by 
the  clergy.  Bristol  was  the  great  slave  market,  and  there 
might  be  seen  long  trains  of  British  youths  and  maidens — 
the  latter  often  ruined  for  the  sake  of  selling  their  off-spring 
— all  to  be  sold  either  to  Ireland  or  to  foreign  countries. 
Bishop  Wulfstan  ^  of  Worcester  (about  lo86  A.D.)  was 
in  the  practice  of  coming  to  this  city  every  year  and 
spending  several  months  in  preaching  the  gospel  against 
this  iniquity.  The  hardened  Northumbrians  at  length 
were  deeply  impressed  by  these  truths,  and  finally  in 
solemn   assembly  vowed   not    only  to   give  up  this  sinful 

tatem  habet  tradere  in  servitutem  :  deinde  sine  voluntate  filii, 
licentiam  tradendi  non  habet.     {Theod.  P(r;i.,  x\x.  28.) 

'  Idiil,  29. 

^  .  .  .  qu'il  est  vray  que  Thomme  franc  et  sub  jure  se  peut 
vendre  ...  La  premiere  qu'il  se  fera  vendre  par  autre,  que  par  lui, 
etc.     (Co/.  Celt.  Lac.)  '  Leg.  Can..,  ii.  74. 

*  Illud  erat  a  natura  abhorens,  quod  multi  ancillas  suas  ex  se 
gravidas,  ubi  libidinem  satis  fecissent,  aut  ad  eternum  obsequium 
vendicabant.     (J////.  Mat  us.  57.) 

'  Beda  {Ecc.  Hist.)  makes  this  name  Wulstan. 


SLAVES  IN  ENGLAND.  243 

practice,  but  to  induce  all  England  to  1  enounce  it.  The 
resolve  made  a  deep  impression  throughout  the  country.^ 

One  authority  says  that  from  Aethehvulf  to  William  the 
Conqueror,  for  230  years,  a  great  part  of  the  English 
peasantry  became  reduced  to  slavery.  After  Malcolm's 
invasion  of  England  (1061  A.D.),  so  many  young  men  and 
maidens  were  carried  away  as  slaves  to  Scotland,  that  it 
was  said  not  a  village  or  a  house  could  be  found  with- 
out them.^  When  Canterbury  was  burned  by  the  Danes 
in  1006  A.D.,  all  the  8,000  inhabitants  were  killed  ex- 
cepting "four  mass  priests"  and  eighty  lower  monks; 
these  were  severely  whipped  and,  if  they  could  not  re- 
deem themselves,  were  carried  off  into  perpetual  slavery. 

By  the  Domesday  Book  (1068-71  A.D.)  the  number  of 
male  slaves  for  Sussex  is  given  as  9,200,  which  would 
make  the  whole  number  about  50,000,  while  the  free  in- 
habitants of  the  county  were  only  38,000.  In  the  whole  of 
England  enumerated,  there  appear  to  have  been  reckoned 
25,000  servi  or  slaves  ;  82,000  bordarii,  and  7,000  cotarii 
(different  kinds  of  serfs),  and  110,000  villeins.^ 

Among  the  evidences  of  the  deep  root  of  English 
slavery  is  the  statement  of  Strabo,*  that  slaves  are  a 
British  export ;  and  the  historical  statement  that  the 
sister  of  Canute  and  first  wife  of  Godwin,  derived  a  large 
income  from  selling  English  slaves  to  Denmark. 

•  .  .  .  ancillasque  prius  ludibrio  lecti  habitas,  jamque  praegnantes 
venum  proponebant.  .  .  .  Hunc  tarn  invetaratum  morem  .  . 
Wulfstanus  paulatim  delevit  .  .  .  divinas  prsedicationis  semina 
spargens.  Quse  adeo  per  inter  alia  temporum  apud  eos  convoluere, 
ut  non  solum  renuntiarent  vitio,  sed  ad  idem  faciendum  CEeteris  per 
Angliam  essent  exemplo.     (2  Ang.  Sac,  258.) 

2  .  .  .  repleta  est  Scotia  servis  et  ancillis  Anglici  generis,  etc. 
{Frn.  Dojn.,  1070  A.D.) 

»  Villani  dicuntur    .    ,     .     qui  villcB  seu  glebas  adscript!  sunt. 
Lib.  4,  199- 


244  GESTA    CHRIS TI. 

There  is  proof  that  slaves  were  branded,  and  even  yoked 
as  cattle. 

If  a  master  killed  his  slave  without  knowledge  of  the 
judge,  the  Church  punished  him,  where  the  civil  law  could 
not,  with  excommunication  or  with  a  penance  of  two 
years.^  The  Church,  too,  sentenced  a  mistress  who  should 
beat  her  maid-servant  with  such  violence  that  she  died,  to 
seven  years'  penance  ;  if  the  death  was  accidental,  the 
penance  was  for  five  years.  According  to  a  law  of  King 
Edward,  whoever  killed  a  slave  man  must  fast  three  years. 
The  killing  a  slave  was  recognised  in  the  law  and  by  the 
Church  as  a  sin.^ 

It  can  only  be  repeated  that  the  gradual  working  of 
Christianity  had  its  usual  effect  on  slavery  and  serfdom  in 
England.  The  prohibition,  on  religious  grounds,  against 
selling  Christian  slaves  to  heathen  countries,  runs  all 
through  Anglo-Saxon  law,  and  is  repeated  by  William  the 
Conqueror  and  other  Norman  kings.^  The  provision  in 
Alfred's  laws  (taken  from  the  Bible)  that  a  Christian  bonds- 
man could  only  be  held  seven  years,  must  have  tended 
gradually  to  free  all  slaves.  Alfred's  feelings  in  regard  to 
slavery  are  shown  in  his  final  will,  and  they  only  indicate 
the  religious  sentiments  of  the  day.  "  And  I  beseech  in 
God's  name  and  His  saints,  that  none  of  my  relatives  do 
obstruct  none  of  the  freedom  of  those  I  have  redeemed. 
And  for  me  the  West  Saxon  nobles  have  pronounced  as 
lawful,  that  I  may  leave  them  free  or  bond,  whether  I  will. 
But  I,  for  God's  love  and  my  soul's  health,  will  that  they 
be  masters  of  their  freedom  and  of  their  will ;  and  I,  in  the 

'  C.  Theod.  Pcen.,  21,  12. 

2  Qui  servum  suum  occiderit,  suum  peccatum  est  et  damnum 
jJ75  Cone). 

•'*  Cavendum  enim  valde  est  ne  aniinc  in  dampnacioncm  vendantur, 
pro  quibus  Christus  vitam  impendit.     (4  Gul.  V.,  xli.) 


CHRISTIAN  BROTHERHOOD.  245 

living  God's  name,  entreat  that  no  man  do  not  disturb 
them,  neither  by  money  exaction,  nor  by  no  manner  of 
means,"  etc.  ^ 

When  Edward  the  Confessor  (974  A.D.)  utters  such 
expressions  in  regard  to  human  equahty  as  the  following, 
we  may  be  sure  that  the  idea  of  Christian  brotherhood  is 
beginning  to  penetrate  barbaric  society.  "We  know," 
says  the  pious  king,  "  that  through  God's  grace  a  thrall  has 
become  a  thane,  and  a  churl  has  become  an  earl  (or  squire), 
a  singer  a  priest,  and  a  scribe  a  bishop  ;  and  formerly,  as 
God  decreed,  a  fisher  became  a  bishop,  etc.  .  .  .  We 
have  all  one  heavenly  Father  and  one  spiritual  mother, 
which  is  called  Ecclesia,  that  is,  God's  Church,  and  there- 
fore are  we  brothers." 

A  law  of  VVihtraed  encouraged  manumission,  by  making 
it  when  performed  at  the  altar  absolute  (No.  9).  William 
the  Conqueror  gives  a  form  of  liberation,  and  enacts  that 
if  slaves  remain  a  year  and  a  day  without  calumny  in  the 
royal  cities  or  burghs,  walled  towns  or  camps,  they  should 
be  free  for  ever. 

Still,  under  English  law,  the  slave  was  a  thing  ;  one  of 
the  catalla,  a  chattel  The  Christian  sentiment,  as  we  have 
said,  first  felt  the  iniquity  of  selling  one  "  bought  by  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ"  ;  and  later,  of  possessing  him  as  a 
bond-servant. 

The  slaves,  as  we  have  already  shown,  were  protected  in 
England  on  Sundays  and  feast-days.  Masters  who  com- 
pelled them  to  work  on  those  days  lost  their  property 
in  them.  Under  Aethelred  they  were  confiscated  to  the 
treasury  ;  under  Canute,  emancipated.  The  slaves  were 
permitted  to  work  for  themselves  for  twelve  days  at  Christ- 
mas, in  the  week  before  and  after  Easter,  and  during  the 
week  before  Assumption,  and  could  thus  earn  money  to  free 
^  Hughes'  Life  of  Alfred. 


246  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

themselves.  "The  slaves  shall  be  freed,"  say  the  Brehon 
laws,^  "  the  plebeians  be  exalted  by  the  orders  of  the 
Church,  and  by  performing  penitential  service  to  God." 
St.  Aidan,  a  bishop  of  Northumbria,  is  said  to  have  ran- 
somed slaves,  instructed  them,  and  then  ordained  them  as 
priests.^  The  synod  of  Celchyth  (8i6  A.D.)  proclaimed 
that,  at  the  death  of  a  certain  bishop,  all  who  had  been  his 
slaves  during  life  should  be  freed  ;  and  that  every  bishop 
throughout  England  should  grant  freedom  to  three  men, 
giving  each  three  shillings  for  masses  for  the  deceased 
bishop's  soul.^ 

Bishop  Wilfred  having  received  an  estate  with  two 
hundred  and  fifty  Christian  slaves,  emancipated  them  with 
the  words,  "  All  those  whom  baptism  hath  rescued  from  the 
service  of  the  devil,  become  by  that  worthy  of  the  liberty 
which  changeth  them  from  servants  to  men."  * 

Among  the  steps  towards  gradual  emancipation  in 
England,  may  be  mentioned,  the  punishment  of  excom- 
munication, threatened  by  Ecgberth  of  York,  for  any 
sale  of  a  child  or  kinsfolk  ;  slave-murder  by  the  master 
became  a  sin  before  the  Church,  though  not  always  a 
capital  crime  before  the  law.^  The  slave  was  often  attached 
to  the  land  and  could  only  be  sold  with  it ;  he  sometimes 
acquired  land  and  bought  his  emancipation. 

One  of  the  protective  features  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  law, 
the  mutual  responsibility  of  the  citizens,  was  extended  to 
slaves  as  to  free  men,  under  .^thelstan.     (924  A.D.) 

A  female  slave  who  was  led  into  sin   by   the   master, 

*  Bridget t,  I,  250. 
'  Beda,  11,  5. 

'  Landon's  Manual  of  Councils.  Celchyth.  Haddan  &  Stubbs, 
Councils.     Bridgett's  Hist,  of  Holy  Eucharist. 

*  Beda,  H.  Ecc.^  iv.  13. 

*  Green. 


EM  A  NCI  PA  TION  OF  SL  i  VES.  247 

became  free  ;  ^  a  provision  which  especially  protected  the 
helpless,  and  was  due  to  the  influence  of  the  religious 
principle.  Slaves  were  set  free  on  the  Church- porch  or 
before  the  altar,  and  the  Gospel-book  bore  on  the  margin 
a  record  of  emancipation.  Sometimes  the  master  placed 
the  slave  at  a  point  where  four  roads  met,  and  bade  him 
go  whither  he  would.  In  a  more  solemn  form  the  master 
took  him  by  the  hand  ^  in  the  full  assembly,  showed  him 
open  road  and  door,  and  gave  him  the  lance  and  sword  of 
a  freeman. 

Before  Alfred,  slaves  could  own  nothing ;  under  his 
legislation,  they  were  permitted  to  dispose  by  will  of  what 
was  given  them,  or  what  they  could  earn  in  their  free 
hours.  He  forbids  also  any  masters  who  have  incurred  a 
fine  or  amend,  from  buying  off  by  the  sale  of  man  as  well 
as  beast. 

The  seven  years' jubilee,  taken  from  the  Jewish  system, 
must  have  gradually  destroyed  slavery  in  England.  Slaves, 
too,  were  more  and  more  permitted  to  ransom  themselves. 
Under  Canute,  when  a  slave  had  fallen  in  the  presence  of 
his  master  on  (x  military  expedition,  his  equipment  and 
possessions  could  be  divided  among  his  heirs.^  The  slave 
as  soldier  became  thus  a  vassal. 

A  slave,  even  as  far  back  as  Wihtraed,  if  freed  was 
obliged  to  leave  his  property  with  his  master  for  blood- 
money  (wergeld),  so  that  he  was  thus  transferred  into  a 
kind  of  serf  So  a  slave  freed  by  the  violence  of  his  master, 
did  not  at  once  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  a  freeman,  but  was 
a  client  of  the  sheriff  (gerefa). 

Slave-birth  prevents  any  one  from  appearing  in  court  as 


»  Pen.  of  St.  Theod.,  14. 
'  Green,  and  Leg.  Gul. 
8  L.  Can.,  75. 


448  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

witness.  To  be  free,  th.  oondman  needed  not  merely  the 
will  of  the  master,  but  also  certain  public  ceremonials. 

Emancipation  became  more  and  more  the  Christian 
work  par  excellence ;  it  was  performed  at  death-beds  and 
in  wills,  pro  remedio  animcs,  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul ; 
the  ceremony  was  consecrated  by  the  Church  and  the 
priest  ;  and  the  written  proof  was  preserved  in  the  Church 
records. 

The  forms  of  manumission  show  the  spirit  which  worked 
towards  liberty  ,  "  Geatflced  hath  freed,  for  God's  love,  and 
for  her  soul's  sake,  E.  the  smith,  and  A.  his  wife,  and  all 
their  offspring,  born  and  unborn,  and  A.  and  C,  and  all  the 
men  who  bent  their  heads  in  the  evil  days.  Whoso  shall 
set  this  aside  and  deprive  her  soul  of  this,  may  God 
Almighty  deprive  him  both  of  this  life  and  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  and  be  he  accursed,  quick  or  dead,  for  ever  and 
ever."  ^ 

Another  form  has  :  "  And  we  make  all  the  serfs  free 
for  both  our  souls'  sake."  ^ 

As  late  as  1535,  we  find  an  act  of  manumission  re- 
peating the  familiar  expression  of  the  Stoical  jurists, 
modified  by  Christianity,  in  regard  to  slavery.  "  Whereas 
at  the  beginning,  nature  brought  forth  all  men  free,  and 
afterwards  the  law  of  nations  placed  certain  of  them  under 
the  yoke  of  servitude,  we  believe  that  it  is  pious  and  meri- 
torious towards  God  to  manumit  them  and  restore  them 
to  the  benefit  of  pristine  liberty,"  and  then  the  author 
(Bishop  Sherborne  of  Chichester)  liberates  a  serf 

The  slave-trade  was  forbidden  from  English  ports  by 
law,  but  legislation  did  not  check  the  inhuman  traffic. 
One  hundred  years  after  Dunstan  (946  A.D.)   the  n  )blea 


*  .    .    ,    ewic  aa  on  ecnysse.     {Cod  Dip.,  No.  ^2^.) 

•  ,    ,    ,     for  unker  bother  soule.     {Ih'd.  979.) 


SLAVES  AFTER   THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST.      249 

still  acquired  wealth  from  the  breeding  of  slaves.'^  Under 
William  the  Conqueror,  the  influence  of  the  religion  of 
mercy  at  length  secured  the  passage  of  a  law  forbidding 
the  slave-trade,  whose  principal  port  and  centre  was 
Bristol.2 

After  the  Norman  conquest,  the  condition  of  the  slaves 
did  not  for  a  time  improve,  as  the  new  conquerors  were 
understood  to  own  the  chattels  of  the  native  Saxons,^ 
and  did  not  at  first  permit  the  bondmen  to  buy  themselvei. 
into  freedom.  Henry  II.  enlarged  the  laws  of  emancipa- 
tion. He  recognised  blood-money  for  a  slave,  with  a  dif- 
ferent amend  for  different  classes  of  slaves.  The  master's 
power  over  the  life  of  his  bondman  is  limited  ;  if  he  kill 
him,  he  must  pay  blood-money  to  the  relatives  of  the 
servant ;  the  reason  in  the  law  being  one  of  those  an- 
tithetical passages  of  which  our  ancestors  are  so  fond 
"because  a  slave  is  a  servant  for  serving,  not  for  killing."'*^ 

By  an  act  of  the  same  king,  no  born  slave  was  admitted 
to  holy  orders,  unless  manumitted:^  a  provision  which 
must  have  had  a  compound  influence  on  both  the  Church 
and  slavery,  in  diminishing  bondage. 

The  Church  councils  thundered  against  the  slave  trade 
in  Christians.  One  called  in  London  (1102),  by  Anselm, 
forbade  absolutely  that  nefarious  business  of  selling  human 
beings  like  brute  beasts  ;  ^  and  another  meeting  at  Armagh, 
Ireland  (i  171),  declared  all  English  Christian  slaves  free. 

^  Green. 
^  Leg.  XX.  15. 

^  Quia  omnia  catalla  cujusliDet  nativi  intelliguntur  esse  in  potestate 
domini  sui.     {Glatiz'ille,  5,  5.) 

*  Quia  servus  ad  serviendum,  non  ad  occidendum  servus  erat.     {H., 

his-) 

»  L.  H.,  I.  (Ixviii.  4.) 

*  Nequis  illud  nefarium  negotium  quo  hactenus  in  Anglia  solebant 
homines,  sicut  bruta  animalia,  venundari,  deinceps  ulla  ten  us  praesumat 


2SO  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

Another  decreed  that  no  English  thralls  who  had  been 
freed  should  be  re-enslaved.^ 

It  is  remarkable,  that  no  one  can  say  precisely  when 
slavery  was  merged  into  serfdom  in  England,  or  when 
serfdom  disappeared. 

In  the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  and  Edward  I.,  some  masters 
transformed  their  serfs  into  freeholders ;  but  if  the  serf  did 
not  do  his  service  as  vassal,  the  master  could  confiscate 
his  land  ;  if  he  performed  this  service,  however,  the  master 
had  no  power. 

There  is  no  evidence  of  a  transference  of  the  persons  of 
villeins  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries.  They 
were  only  obliged  to  pay  for  a  marriage  licence,  and  were 
not  permitted  to  select  their  calling. 

A  petition  was  presented  to  Parliament  in  the  reign  of 
Richard  II.  that  villeins  should  not  be  permitted  to  send 
their  children  to  school  in  order  to  advance  them  in  the 
Church,  which  shows  that  many  were  then  rising  out  of 
their  condition  into  that  of  freemen  by  becoming  priests. 

There  were  many  influences  throughout  England  gradu- 
ally raising  up  the  serf ;  but  the  most  powerful  was  the  slow 
action  of  religious  motives  on  the  conscience  of  the  masters. 
The  selling  one  "  for  whom  Christ  died," — that  is,  a 
Christian, — was  felt  from  the  earliest  ages  to  be  a  great  in- 
consistency and  offence.  Gradually  the  holding  such  a 
person  in  bondage  was  seen  to  be  equally  against  the 
teachings  of  the  Master ;  and  finally,  the  laying  unjust 
burdens  on  fellow- Christians  was  perceived  to  be  contrary 
to  the  Gospel.  This  sense  of  justice  worked  silently  and 
gradually  through  English  as  well  as  European  society  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  continually  lightened  serfdom  by 
reforms  not  necessary  to  be  related  here,  until  at  length  it 

*  ...  in  prisfinam  revocentur  libertatem.  {Coticil.  Lond.  Girald. 
Cambr.) 


MOTIVES  FOR  EMANCIPATION.  251 

disappeared  as  snow  melts  before  the  spring  sun,  no  one 
being  able  to  say  precisely  when  winter  ceased  or  the  new 
season  began. 

A  trustworthy  testimony  as  to  the  motives  leading  to 
emancipation  in  England,  is  given  by  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  a 
statesman  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  who  wrote  his  "  Common- 
wealth of  England  "  -^  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century 
(about  1570).  He  argues  without  any  partiality  towards 
the  Church,  though  with  a  full  sense  of  the  value  of  religion  ; 
and  states  ^  that  already  in  his  time  slaves  were  unknown 
in  England,  and  of  serfs  only  a  few  survived,  but  that  both 
conditions  were  recognised  in  English  law.  Of  the  causes 
working  towards  freedom,  he  says :  "  I  think  both  in 
France  and  England  the  change  of  religion  to  the  more 
gentle  and  more  equal  sort  (as  the  Christian  religion  is  in 
respect  to  the  Gentiles)  caused  this  whole  kind  of  servile 
servitude  and  slavery  to  be  brought  into  that  moderation 
.  .  .  so  that  they  almost  extinguished  the  whole.  .  .  , 
This  persuasion  I  say  of  Christians,  not  to  make  nor  keep 
his  brother  in  Christ,  servile,  bond  and  underling  for  ever 
under  him,  as  a  beast  rather  than  as  a  man,  and  the 
humanities  which  the  Christian  religion  doeth  teach,  hath 
engendered  through  Realmes  (not  near  to  Turks  and  bar- 
barians) a  doubt,  a  conscience  and  scruple  to  have  servants 
and  bondmen  ;  yet  necessitie  on  both  sides,  on  the  one  to 
have  helpe,  on  the  other  to  have  service,  hath  kept  a  figure 
or  fashion  thereof"  (pp.  130,  131).  And  again:  "  Howbeit 
since  our  Realme  hath  received  the  Christian  religion  which 
maketh  us  all  in  Christ,  breathren,  anc  in  respect  of  God 
and  Christ,  conscrvos,  then  began  men  to  have  conscience 
to  hold  in  captivitie  and  such  extreme  bondage,  him  whom 
they  mu.st  acknowledge  to  be  his  brother,  and,  as  we  use  to 

'   The  Commonwealth  0/ Efiglafui,  by  Sir  Thamas  Smith,  1589. 
2  p.  129. 


252  GESTA    CHRISTL 

term  him,  Christian  ;  that  is,  to  have  equall  portion  with 
them  in  the  gospel  and  salvation."  And  then  with  a  sly 
hit  at  the  Church  :  "  Upon  this  sample,  in  continuance  of 
time,  and  by  long  succession,  the  holy  Fathers,  munkes  and 
fryers  in  their  confession,  and  specially  in  their  extreme 
and  deadly  sicknesses,  burdened  the  consciences  of  them 
whom  they  had  under  their  hands  ;  so  that  temporall  men, 
by  little  and  little,  by  reason  of  that  terror  in  their  con- 
science, were  glad  to  manumit  all  their  villaines  ;  but  the 
same  holy  Fathers,  with  the  abbots  and  friars,  did  not  in 
like  sort  by  theirs,  for  they  had  also  conscience  to  im- 
poverish and  dispoyle  the  Church  so  much,  as  to  manumit 
such  as  were  bound  to  their  Churches,  or  to  their  mannors, 
which  the  Church  had  gotten,  and  so  kept  theirs  still " 
(c.  lO,  p.  129).! 

In  1 39 1  serfs  still  appear  in  England  ;  but  before  the 
middle  of  that  century  the  majority  had  become  hired 
labourers.  There  were  acts  of  enfranchisement  in  the 
reigns  of  Mary  and  Elizabeth.  The  act  of  the  latter 
emancipating  serfs  in  1574  on  certain  manors  was  one  of 
the  last.2 

Even  in  1610  James  I.  appears  to  have  possessed  rights 
over  serfs  ;  and  serfdom  was  not  finally  swept  away  till 
the  reign  of  Charles  II. 

In  Scotland  the  arbitrary  rights  of  serfdom  over  the 
labourers  in  the  salt  works  endured  till  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

*  See  also  on  villenage,  Mirro7-  0/  Justices,  c.  ll.  p.  209.  (Trans,  by 
W.  H.,  1768.) 

2  Queen  Elizabeth  is  reported  to  have  commissioned  Lord  Burleigh 
and  Sir  W.  Mildmay  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the  villeins  on 
her  domains  in  Cornwall,  Devonsliirc,  Somerset  and  Gloucestershire, 
and  make  such  as  were  born  bond  compound  for  their  freedom.  (£>r 
Truster,  quoted  in  Bell's  Feudalism,  p.  259.) 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

CHIVALRY. 

THE  phenomenon  of  chivalry  is  one  of  the  most  singular 
in  history.  As  an  ideal  of  character  and  life  it  is 
quite  distinct  from  any  classic  ideals,  and  not  entirely 
corresponding  either  to  the  German  or  Christian  concep- 
tion. It  may  be  said  that  the  world  of  the  Middle  Ages 
was  peculiarly  false  to  its  chivalric  ideal.  But  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  relations  of  the  classic  world  to  the 
Stoic  standard,  or  of  the  Christian  world  to  its  model. 
Still,  for  some  centuries — from  certainly  the  eleventh  to  the 
fourteenth — the  chivalric  ideal  was  that  of  the  great  body 
of  martial  young  men  of  the  higher  classes  of  Europe, 
and  exerted  a  very  manifest  influence  on  manners  and 
morals.  It  softened  the  cruelty  of  war  in  a  barbarous 
age,  led  the  popular  mind  away  from  material  ends  to 
certain  ideas,  sometimes  whimsical,  but  more  often  generous 
and  noble ;  it  strengthened  the  position  and  power  of 
woman,  cultivated  some  of  the  purest  virtues,  and  formed 
a  conception  of  character  which  has  come  down  into 
modern  society,  and  influenced  countries  where  feudalism 
was  never  known. 

To  determine  the  part  which  Christianity  had  in  chivalry, 
we  must  examine  the  customs  and  received  ideals  of  the 
latter. 

The  initiation  of  the  knight  was  essentially  religious  in 

*53 


254  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

form  ;  but  the  outward  ceremony  seems  to  have  descended 
from  the  ancient  Germans.  Tacitus  tells  us  that  the  young 
German  who  aspired  to  be  a  warrior,  was  brought  into  the 
midst  of  the  assembly  of  the  chiefs,  where  his  father,  or 
a  relative,  solemnly  equipped  the  youth  for  his  future 
vocation,  with  shield  and  javelin.  The  act  was  looked 
upon  as  a  rite  of  religious  solemnity.  So  chivalry  taught 
that  the  youthful  knight  was  to  enter  on  his  calling 
under  religious  ceremonies.  He  was  first  divested  of  his 
clothes  and  put  into  the  bath  as  an  emblem  of  purification  ; 
then  a  white  robe,  symbol  of  purity,  was  wrapped  around 
him  ;  next  a  red  robe,  symbol  of  the  blood  which  he 
should  shed  for  the  Faith,  and  of  the  blood  shed  for  him  ; 
and  finally  a  black  garment  was  worn,  to  remind  of  the 
death  which  would  be  always  near  him.  He  was  then 
to  fast  twenty-four  hours,  and  in  the  evening  to  enter  the 
Church  and  pass  the  night  in  solitary  prayer,  or  sometimes 
in  company  with  his  godfathers.  The  next  day  his  first 
act  was  to  be  confession  ;  after  this,  he  was  present  at  mass 
and  listened  to  a  solemn  sermon  on  the  duties  of  knight- 
hood ;  finally,  he  kneeled  before  the  altar,  his  sword  was 
blessed  by  the  priest,  and  he  made  solemnly  his  knightly 
oaths.  Among  these  was  one  that  "Avarice,  recompense, 
gain,  or  profit  should  never  oblige  the  knight  to  any  action, 
but  only  glory  and  virtue."  Another,  that  he  would  "  never 
fight  with  more  than  one  against  one,  and  to  avoid  all 
fraud  and  deceit."  Another  bound  him  "  to  conduct  a  lady 
or  maiden  whom  he  might  meet  in  danger,  to  a  safe  retreat, 
to  serve  her,  protect  her,  and  save  her  from  all  danger  and 
all  insult,  or  die  in  the  attempt  ;  to  never  do  violence  to 
ladies  or  maidens  without  their  will  and  consent,  although 
they  had  been  won  by  arms.^ 

A  more  formal  statement  of  the  knight's  oaths  is  the 
^  Guizot,  Hist,  of  Civ.  voL  iiL  p.  il. 


OATHS  OF  CHIl  iLRY.  255 

following : — i.  I  shall  fortify  and  defend  the  Christian 
religion  to  the  uttermost  of  my  power.  2.  I  shall  be  loyal 
and  true  to  my  sovereign  lord  the  king,  to  all  orders  of 
chivalry,  and  to  the  noble  office  of  arms.  3.  I  shall  fortify 
and  defend  justice  with  all  my  power,  and  that  without 
favour  or  vanity.  6.  I  shall  defend  the  just  action  and 
quarrel  of  all  ladies  of  honour,  of  all  true  and  friendless 
widows,  of  orphans  of  good  fame.  7.  I  shall  do  diligence 
wheresoever  I  hear  that  there  are  any  murderers,  traitors, 
or  masterful  robbers  who  oppress  the  king's  lieges  and 
poor  people,  to  bring  them  to  the  law  with  all  my  power.^ 

An  old  French  ballad,"  quoted  by  Saint  Palaye,  says  : 
"  You  who  desire  the  order  of  knighthood,  you  must  lead  a 
new  life  ;  devoutly  watch  and  pray,  shun  sin,  pride  and 
villainy,  the  Church  you  must  defend,  the  widow's  cause 
and  the  orphan's  undertake,  be  hardy  and  loyal,  and 
plunder  nothing  from  others — thus  must  the  knight  guide 
himself." 

The  mother  of  the  celebrated  knight,  Bayard,  is  said  to 
have  uttered  these  words  when  he  received  his  sword  : 
"  Serve  God  and  He  will  aid  thee ;  be  sweet  and  courteous 
to  every  gentleman  in  divesting  thyself  of  all  pride.  Be 
not  a  flatterer  or  talebearer,  for  this  kind  of  people  come 
not  to  great  perfection  ;  be  loyal  in  word  and  in  deed  ; 
keep  thy  word,  be  helpful  to  the  poor  and  orphan,  and 
God  will  reward  it  to  thee."  ^  The  young  aspirant  for 
knighthood  was  not  uncommonly  trained  to  serve  in  some 

'  Selden,  quoted  by  Mill,  Hist,  of  Chivalry,  p.  153. 
-  Vous  qui  voulez  Tordre  de  chevalier 
II  vous  convient  mener  nouvelle  vie  ; 
Devotement  en  oraison  veiller, 
Peche  fuir,  orgueil  et  villenie,  etc. 
'  Servez   Dieu  et  il    vous  aidera ;    soyez    doux  et  courtois  k  tout 
gentilhomme  en  otant  de  vous  tout  orgueil ;  ne  soyez  flatteur  ni  rap- 
porteur. 


256  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

noble  family,  and  was  thus  early  taught  one  of  the  virtues 
of  chivalry — a  dignified  obedience,  and  a  subordination 
to  elders  and  superiors,  which  had  no  mixture  of  obse- 
quiousness. 

The  Helden-Buch,  an  old  authority  on  Chivalry,  says  of 
the  duties  of  knighthood  :  — 

"The  Princes  young  were  taught  to  protect  all  ladies  fair, 
Priests  they  bade  them  honour  and  to  the  mass  repair ; 
All  holy  Christian  love  were  they  taught,  I  plight ; 
Hughdietrich  and  his  noble  queen,  caused  priests  to  guide  them 
aright."  ^ 

The  ideal  of  knighthood  is  thus  given  in  an  old  chroni- 
cle, translated  by  Bullfinch  :  "  Then  King  Arthur  stablished 
all  his  knights  and  to  them  that  were  not  rich  he  gave 
lands  and  charged  them  all  never  to  do  outrage  or  murder 
and  always  to  flee  treason  ;  also  by  no  means  to  be  cruel, 
but  to  give  mercy  unto  them  that  ask  mercy,  upon  pain 
of  forfeiture  of  their  worship  and  lordship;  and  always  to 
do  ladies,  damosels  and  gentlewomen  service,  upon  pain 
of  death  ;  also  that  no  man  take  battle  in  a  wrongful 
quarrel  for  no  law  or  any  world's  goods.  Under  this 
were  all  the  knights  sworn  of  the  Table  Round,  both  old 
and  young ;  "and  at  every  year  were  they  sworn  at  the 
high  feast  of  Pentecost." 

The  Church  itself  strove  in  every  way  to  confirm  these 
ideas.  Thus  the  Council  of  Clement  made  solemn 
declaration  that  every  noble  person  should,  at  the  age  of 
twelve,  take  solemn  oath  before  the  bishop  to  defend  to 
the  uttermost  widows  and  orphans  ;  that  women  of  noble 
birth,  both  single  and  married,  should  enjoy  his  special 
care,  and  that  nothing  should  be  wanting  in  him  to  render 
travelling  safe,  and  to  overthrow  tyranny.* 

*  Quoted  by  Mills,  p.  224. 
2  Ibid.^  p.  216. 


LESSONS  OF  CHIVALRY.  2S7 

The  translator  of  St.  Palaye's  "  MemoioTs  of  Ancient 
Chivalry,"  says  eloquently  :  "  Women  in  particular,  ought 
to  hold  these  ancient  writers  on  chivalry  in  high  esteem, 
for  the  deference  they  paid  to  modesty  and  the  same  they 
so  liberally  bestowed  on  virtue.  They  taught  generous 
firmness,  judicious  observance  of  superiors  and  constant 
love  to  unite  in  the  same  hearts.  They  taught  to  honoui 
the  valiant,  to  attend  the  wounded,  to  relieve  the  dis- 
tressed and  to  dispense  the  sweet  solace  of  cheerful  and 
gentle  manners  to  all  around  them  ;  they  taught  them 
to  respect  themselves  and  to  prefer  others  ;  to  be  silent 
observant,  and  industrious  in  youth,  graceful  and  dignified 
in  maturity,  venerable  in  age  and  lamented  in  death.'' 
Foulque,  a  young  knight,  is  thus  described  by  St.  Palaye^  : 
"  He  is  eager  to  expand  his  heart  and  to  diffuse  his  wealth 
to  all  who  approach  him  and  ever  without  partiality  or 
limitation  to  all  the  world,  the  declared  enemy  of  injustice 
and  of  all  who  dare  to  be  its  patrons.  The  being  unable 
to  redress  wrong  is  his  sole  cause  of  grief ;  if  this  ever 
happens,  he  is  inconsolable.  He  is  taught  ^  that  simplicity 
and  modesty  alone  gave  a  lustre  to  victory  and  he  has 
been  directed  from  a  child  to  be  the  last  who  should  speak 
high  things  and  the  first  who  should  do  them,  to  be  mild 
among  the  aged  and  stout  among  the  brave,  and  that  he 
can  never  praise  himself  too  little  or  others  too  much." 
Spenser  gives  us  the  same  ideal  in  his  "  Red  Cross 
Knight  " : 

"  And  many  hard  adventures  did  achieve 
Of  all  the  which  they  honer  wonne, 
Seekuig  the  weak  oppressed  to  reheve. 
And  to  recover  right  for  such  as  wrong  did  grieve."  • 

*  St.  Palaye,  p.  67.  '  Ibid.,  p.  31, 

'  Fairy  Queen,  i"    1-3. 


258  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

An  old  French  ballad  savs  : — 

"  A  true  knight  the  people  must  defend 
And  his  heart's  blood  for  the  Faith  expend.*' 

Chaucer  also  thus  pictures  the  knight — 

"A  knight  there  was  and  that  a  worthy  man 
That  from  the  time  he  first  began 
To  riden  out,  he  loved  chivalry 
Truth  and  honour,  freedom  and  courtesy. 
*  *  *  * 

And  tho'  that  he  was  worthy,  he  was  wise, 
And  of  his  port  as  meek  as  is  a  maid, 
He  never  yet  no  villainy  ne  said, 
In  all  his  life  unto  no  manner  wight  ; 
He  was  a  very  gentle  perfect  knight."  * 

One  of  the  first  virtues  taught  the  knight  which  has 
greatly  influenced  modern  warfare,  was  pity  for  his  enemy. 
It  was  a  common  phrase,  that  "  a  warrior  without  pity 
was  without  worship."  "  In  all  the  wars  of  chivalry,"  says 
the  historian^  of  Brittany,  "true  soldiers  never  injure  the 
tillers  of  the  ground." 

The  celebrated  knight,  Du  Quesclin,  is  reported  to  have 
said  on  his  death-bed  to  his  companions  in  arms  :  "  Neither 
the  clergy  nor  women  nor  children  are  your  enemies." 

Chevalier  Bayard,  being  told  that  it  was  permitted  to 
live  in  an  enemy's  country  upon  the  inhabitants,  replied  : 
"  It  is  true,  but  I  think  we  ought  not  to  do  all  that  is 
permitted  ;  the  right  of  war  is  one  thing,  the  right  of 
justice  another.  I  rebuke  not  what  others  do,  but  I  will 
not  do  it  myself"  * 

The  courtesy  and  pity  of  the  knight  evidently  enteied 

*  lis  doivent  le  pen  pie  defendre 
Et  la  sange  pour  la  foi  espandre. 
•  Prologue  Canterbury  Tales.  ^  Argentre. 

*  Si.  Pal  aye,  p.  196. 


COURTESY  OF  CHIVALRY.  259 

into  practical  affairs  and  became  characteristics  of  warfare 
in  certain  countries.  "  King  Edward,"  says  Froissart,  after 
the  battle  near  Calais  (1346),  "sat  down  to  supper  and 
made  the  captive  French  knights  sit  down  also,  greeted 
them  honourably  and  ordered  them  to  be  served  with  the 
first  course,  while  the  gentle  Prince  of  Wales  and  the 
knights  of  England  were  served  with  the  second  course 
at  another  table."  To  the  knight  who  had  nearly  killed 
him,  King  Edward  said  :  "  I  have  never  found  in  battle 
any  man  who  man  to  man  hath  given  me  so  much  trouble 
as  thou  hast  done,  I  therefore  give  thee  the  prize  by  a 
just  decision  above  all  the  knights  of  my  court."  The 
courtesy  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  the  French  King  John 
as  prisoner  after  the  battle  of  Poictiers  is  too  well  known 
to  need  recounting.  The  English  prince  constantly  re- 
fused to  sit  down  at  the  table  of  his  captive,  and  gave  him 
the  highest  honours. 

"Can  it  be  conceived  possible,"  says  Froissart,  "that  in 
a  hot  fire  of  the  squadrons  of  the  French  and  English  met 
near  Cherbourg  (1379),  the  knights  and  squires  having 
dismounted  to  fight  closer,  stopped  in  the  midst  of  these 
furious  transports  to  give  one  among  them  who  remained 
on  horseback  the  leisure  to  challenge  that  knight  among 
his  enemies  whom  he  esteemed  to  excel  the  most  in  love." 
This  historian  relates  again  that  after  a  battle  between  the 
French  and  English,  in  1344,  "the  English  dealt  like  good 
comrades  with  their  prisoners,  and  suffered  many  to  depart 
on  their  oaths  and  promises  to  return  again  on  a  fixed 
day  to  Bordeaux."  ^  After  the  battle  at  Otterbourne,  the 
Scots  are  said  to  have  set  their  English  prisoners  to 
ransom,  and  every  man  said  to  his  prisoner :  "  Sir,  go  and 
unarm  yourself  and  take  your  ease,"  and  so  made  their 

*  Friissari,  i.  107. 


26o  GESTA    CHRIS TI. 

prisoners  good  cheer  as  if  they  had  been  brethren,  without 
doing  them  any  injury.^  The  chivalric  custom  of  ransom 
undoubtedly  mitigated  to  a  great  degree  the  horrors  of 
war  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  knights  were  punctilious  to 
the  last  degree  in  keeping  the  pledges  made  to  their 
captors.  Thus  the  Duke  of  Gueldres  is  said  to  have 
been  captured  by  a  squire  of  low  degree  and  carried  to 
his  stronghold.  The  forces  of  the  duke  approaching, 
the  squire  made  him  promise  that  he  would  come  to  him 
wherever  he  might  be  on  a  fixed  day  and  remain  his 
prisoner  till  ransom  was  paid.  The  duke  was  imme- 
diately liberated  by  his  comrades,  but  held  himself  bound 
by  his  pledge,  and  after  months  of  delay  and  against 
many  remonstrances,  penetrated  the  enemy's  lines  and 
delivered  himself  to  his  captor,  from  whom  he  was  subse- 
quently ransomed.  As  an  instance  of  knightly  manners, 
the  romance  of  Farumbras  relates  that  the  famous  knight 
Oliver,  in  a  battle  with  the  Saracen  cavalier  Farumbras, 
assisted  his  foe  to  lace  his  helmet,  and  before  they  fought, 
both  bowed  politely  to  one  another. 

Such  an  action  as  the  following,  related  of  the  wars  of 
Robert  Bruce,  shows  what  a  humanizing  reality  chivalry 
might  be : — 

*'  The  king  has  heard  a  woman  cry : 
He  asked  what  that  was  in  hy  (haste) 
It  is  the  layndar  (kumdress)  sir,  said  one, 
That  her  child-ill  (bed)  right  now  has  taen, 
And  must  leave  now  behind  us  here, 
Therefore  she  makes  an  evil  cheer. 
The  king  said,  Certes  it  were  pity 
That  she  in  that  point  left  should  be, 
For,  certes,  I  trow  there  is  no  man 
That  he  no  will  rue  a  woman  than. 

'  Froissart  ii.  io8 


HUMANITY  OF  CHIVALRY.  a6l 

His  hosts  all  then  arrested  he 
And  gert  a  tent  soon  stinted  (pitched)  be 
And  gert  her  gang  in  hastilie 
And  other  women  to  be  her  by 
While  she  was  delivered,  he  bade, 
And  syne  forth  on  his  way's  rade  ; 
And  how  she  forth  should  carried  be, 
Or  he  forth  fare  (journeyed)  ordained  he ; 
This  was  a  full  great  courtesie 
That  swilk  a  king  and  so  mightie 
Gert  his  men  dwell  on  this  manner 
But  for  a  poor  lavender."  ' 

Writing  of  knightly  courtesy,  Froissart  says,  "there 
is  no  pause  between  them  (the  EngHsh  and  Scotch)  as 
long  as  spears,  swords,  axes,  or  daggers  will  endure.  When 
one  party  hath  obtained  the  victory,  they  then  could 
glorify  in  their  deeds  of  arms,  and  are  so  joyful  that  such 
as  are  taken,  are  ransomed  ere  they  go  out  of  the  field,  so 
that  shortly  each  of  them  is  so  content  with  the  other,  that 
at  their  departing,  they  will  say  courteously,  God  thank 
you  !  "  2  That  incident  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  the  chevalier 
of  more  modern  days,  refusing  the  cup  of  cold  water  when 
dying  that  he  might  give  it  to  a  wounded  soldier,  will 
probably  never  depart  out  of  human  memory.  It  shows 
what  Christianity  can  do,  acting  on  the  traditional  habits 
of  the  gentleman  and  soldier. 

The  chivalric  ideal  forbade  all  violence  to  the  prisoner. 
An  Italian  writer  of  eminence  even  blames  the  soldier 
who  struck  the  tyrant  of  Padua,  "  since  it  is  as  vile  an  act 
to  wound  a  prisoner  whether  noble  or  otherwise,  as  to 
strike  a  dead  body."  ^ 

'  The  Bruce,  x.  i,  270.  This  humane  incident  is  said  to  have 
occurred  in  Robert  Bruce's  campaign  in  Ireland,  in  13 19. 

-  Froissart,  ii.  142. 

3.  .  .  quam  gladio  casdere  cadaver.  {RolaKderius.)  Quoted  by 
Hallam. 


262  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

The  model  of  the  knight  was  that  of  exceeding  gentle- 
ness. Arthur  is  described  as  replete  with  all  grace  and 
virtue,  "for  he  is  free,  meek  and  gentle  as  a  lamb."^ 

A  common  motto  of  a  noble  family  in  France  was  "the 
braver  the  milder"  {quo  fortior  eo  initior). 

When  the  chronicles  picture  a  knight  wandering  in  a 
wilderness  and  asking  his  way  of  some  cowherd,  they 
describe  him  as  riding  away  "  while  commending  the  lad 
to  God."  When  King  Arthur  met  some  unknown  ladies 
in  the  forest,  the  biographers  relate  that  "  as  soon  as  he  saw 
them,  he  lyghted  downe  of  his  hors  and  ryght  sweetly 
saluted  them." 

Of  Rodrigo  it  is  said  that, — 

"  Journeying  on  he  greeted  whom  he  met 
With  such  short  interchange  of  courtesie 
As  each  to  other  gentle  traveller  gives." 

Hospitality  was  equally  a  duty  with  courtesy.  "Then  it 
was,"  says  Perceforest,  "that  in  Great  Britain  charity  of 
manners  reigned  in  all  ;  noble  dames  and  gentle  knights 
placed  on  the  tops  of  their  castles  a  helmet,  as  a  sign  that 
all  good  knights  and  worthy  ladies  travelling  that  way 
should  enter  as  freely  into  their  castle  as  if  it  were  their 
own,"  Handsome  presents  were  given  to  the  guests,  "  but 
the  courtesy  they  learned  in  those  castles  was  above  all 
riches  ;  no  spirit  of  discord  or  peevishness  was  ever  allowed 
in  these  knights  to  one  another.  Their  manners  displayed 
every  kind  of  friendship  and  goodwill."  ^  "  Nothing  was 
small  or  despicable  in  the  eyes  of  a  knight,  if  it  compre- 
hended the  welfare  of  an  individual  ;  if  he  in  his  voyage 
or  expedition  received  the  hospitality  of  the  meanest 
person,  gratitude  would  never  suffer  him  to  consider  that 
person  but  as  a  noble  and  generous  benefactor  ;  he  declared 
himself  for  ever  his  knight,  and  swore  to  renounce  all  the 
»  Quoted  by  Digby.  »  St.  Palaye,  p.  28a, 


IDEALS  OF  CHIVALRY.  263 

glory  that  could  be  proposed  to  him,  to  acquit  himself  of 
the  debt  to  defend,  protect,  and  succour  him  in  time  of 
need."  ^ 

The  following  passage  shows  the  Norman  ideal  of 
chivalry  in  the  twelfth  century.  Geoffrey  says  of  the  reign 
of  King  Arthur  :  "  Britain  had  arrived  at  such  a  pitch  of 
grandeur  that  in  abundance  of  riches,  luxury  of  ornaments, 
and  politeness  of  inhabitants,  it  far  surpassed  all  other 
kingdoms.  The  knights  in  it  that  were  famous  for  chivalry, 
wore  their  clothes  and  arms  all  of  the  same  colour  and 
fashion  ;  and  the  women  also,  no  less  celebrated  for  their 
wit,  wore  all  the  same  kind  of  apparel,  and  counted  none 
worthy  of  their  love  but  such  as  had  given  proof  of  their 
valour  in  three  successive  battles.  Thus  was  the  valour  of 
the  men  an  encouragement  for  the  women's  chastity,  and 
the  love  of  the  women  a  spur  to  soldiers'  bravery."  ^ 

The  brotherhoods  in  arms  were  one  of  the  remarkable 
features  of  chivalry,  undoubtedly  a  survival  of  German 
customs.  There  is  said  to  have  been  one  association  called 
the  "  Order  of  the  White  Lady  with  the  Green  Shield," 
whose  especial  object  was  to  restore  to  ladies,  property 
taken  from  them  by  unjust  plunderers. 

A  celebrated  cavalier,  named  Hugh  de  Carvalai,  being 
forced  to  separate  from  his  brother  in  arms,  Boucicaut,  is 
related  by  the  Chronicle  to  have  thus  spoken  :  "  Gentle 
lord,  we  who  have  been  together  in  happy  companionship, 
have  had  the  same  wills,  the  same  conquests,  and  the  same 
joys  ;  nor  has  either  received  a  joy  that  the  other  has  not 
partaken  of.  But  in  the  account,  I  think,  I  have  received 
more  from  you  than  I  have  given  ;  therefore  I  pray  you 
that  we  may  settle,  and  what  I  owe  you  I  will  pay  or 
assign  over  to  you." 

*  St.  Pal  aye,  p.  228. 

•  Quoted  in  Troubadours,  etc.,  p.  250,  by  H.  W.  Preston. 


264  CESTA    CHRIST!. 

" This  is  a  sermon  indeed  !  "  answered  Bertrand,  "I  have 
never  thought  of  this  account,  nor  know  I  whether  I  am 
indebted  to  you  or  you  to  me,  but  I  pray  you,  as  we  are 
about  to  separate,  let  us  be  quit  therein.  But  if  we  meet 
again,  we  will  make  a  new  debt  and  will  have  it  written  ; 
it  now  only  remains  for  each  of  us  to  act  nobly,  and  for 
you  to  follow  }'our  master.  May  that  affection  which 
hath  ever  been,  continue  with  us  ;  and  since  it  must  be 
so,  in  love  let  us  depart."  ^ 

Of  these  fraternities  the  old  ballad  says, — 

"  From  this  day  forward  ever  mo' 
Neither  fail  either  for  weal  or  woe, 
To  help  other  at  need  : 
Brother  be  now  true  to  me, 
And  I  shall  be  as  true  to  thee  !• 

The  ballad  then  pictures  the  knights  as  vowing  never  to 
injure  or  villify  each  other,  and  to  share  one  another's 
dangers  and  trials. 

Froissart  says,  that  there  was  a  bond  of  brotherhood 
among  all  knights,  and  that  "  nobleness  and  gentleness 
ought  to  be  aided  by  nobles  and  gentles."  It  was  evidently 
a  custom  among  them  that  no  ransom  should  be  set  so 
high  that  the  knight  could  not  pay  it  with  ease,  and 
maintain  a  suitable  rank  afterwards. 

In  the  tribunals  of  justice,  the  title  of  knight  was 
especially  respected,  it  being  presumed  that  those  who  had 
borne  it  were  always  disposed  to  defend  the  cause  of  right. 
For  this  very  reason,  when  condemned  for  any  offence,  the 
knight  paid  a  double  fine. 

The  devotion  to  ladies  was  the  crowning  grace  of 
chivalry.  This  respect  for  the  sex  went  so  far  that  an 
act  is  on  record  of  James  II.,  of  Aragon,  that  any  man. 

*  St.  Palaje,  p.  224. 


DEVOTION  TO    WOMEN.  265 

whether  soldier  or  civilian,  native  or  foreign,  travelling 
through  the  kingdom  in  company  with  a  high-born  ladV; 
should  be  safe  from  all  attack  or  pursuit,  unless  he  were 
a  criminal  under  the  charge  of  murder.^ 

"  You  should  elect,"  says  an  ancient  chivalric  history, 
addressing  the  young  knight,  "  a  lady  of  noble  blood  who 
has  the  ability  to  advise  and  the  power  to  assist  you  ;  and 
you  should  serve  her  so  truly  and  love  her  so  loyally  as  to 
compel  her  to  acknowledge  the  honourable  affection  which 
you  entertain  for  her.  .  .  .  But  he  who  loyally  serves 
his  lady  will  not  only  be  blessed  to  the  height  of  man's 
felicity  in  this  life,  but  will  never  fall  into  those  sins  which 
will  prevent  his  happiness  hereafter.  Pride  will  be  entirely 
effaced  from  the  heart  of  him  who  endeavours  by  humility 
and  courtesy  to  win  the  grace  of  the  lady.  The  true  faith 
of  a  lover  will  defend  him  from  the  other  deadly  sins  of 
anger,  envy,  sloth  and  gluttony ;  and  his  devotion  to  his 
mistress  renders  the  thought  impossible  of  his  conduct 
ever  being  stained  with  the  vice  of  impurity."  *  There 
can  be  no  doubt  of  the  capacity  of  the  knight  of  chivalry 
for  this  pure,  unsensual  devotion  to  his  mistress.  The 
romances,  chronicles,  and  histories  are  full  of  instances  of 
it,  and  it  certainly  formed  the  ideal  of  great  numbers  of 
young  men  of  the  higher  classes.  Each  sex  too  elevated 
the  other,  as  the  "Romance  of  the  Rose"  says.  "The 
better  the  chevaliers  the  better  the  ladies,  and  the  more 
chastely  did  they  love."  * 

•  Statuimus  quod  omnis  homo,  sive  miles  sive  alius  qui  iverit  cum 
domina  generosa  salvus  sit,  etc.     (Quoted  by  Halliun,  3,  375.) 

*  UHistoire,  etc.  du  Petit  Jehan,  etc.,  1,  36. 

*  Les  chevaliers  mieux  en  valoient 
Les  dames  meilleures  dtoient 
Ft  plus  chastement  en  vivoient. 

— Romance  of  the  Rose. 


266  GESTA    CHRIST  I. 

The  peculiar  home  of  chivalry  was  France  and  England, 
If  we  may  trust  Froissart,  the  Germans  were  too  rude 
and  covetous  in  the  Middle  Ages,  to  feel  powerfully  the 
especial  influences  of  the  system.  "  Their  excessive 
covetousness  quencheth  the  sense  of  honour."  ^  "  When  a 
German  hath  taken  a  prisoner,  he  putteth  him  into  irons 
and  hard  prison  without  any  pity,  to  make  him  pay  the 
greater  penance  and  ransom.""  No  chivalric  spirit  checked, 
in  Teutonic  countries,  feudal  licentiousness,  and  it  was  the 
democratic  influence  of  the  cities  rather  than  the  generosity 
and  chivalry  of  the  knights,  which  protected  the  people 
from  oppression.  In  Italy,  too,  there  was  little  influence  of 
chivalry  to  soften  the  barbarisms  of  war  or  raise  the  position 
of  woman.  The  frequency  of  cruel  massacres  in  the 
Italian  wars  and  of  assassination  in  time  of  peace,  shows 
how  superficial  was  the  power  of  this  ideal.  Even  in 
Spain,  the  model  knight,  the  Cid,  is  described  as  cheating 
without  scruple  the  unfortunate  Jews  who  had  lent  him 
money.  All  the  knights,  too,  were  bigoted  to  the  last 
degree.  That  "  sainted  knight  and  most  Christian  king," 
Louis  IX.,  is  said  thus  to  have  instructed  his  knights : 
"Argue  not  with  an  unbeliever,  be  he  infidel  or  heretic, 
but  thrust  the  Christian  lance  or  sword  into  his  body  as 
fast  and  as  far  as  you  can  ! "  ^ 

Still,  from  all  the  above  and  innumerable  similar  ex- 
tracts from  ancient  chronicles,  ballads  and  histories,  there 
comes  forth  a  very  distinct  ideal  of  character,  which  un- 
questionably exceedingly  influenced  the  higher  classes  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  has  not  yet  lost  its  power.  It 
is   a   conception    of  a   character,  self-centered,   ruling   its 

•  Froissart^  ii.  125. 
"  Ibid.,  i.  435. 

*  .  .  .  mais  k  bonne  esp^e  tranchant  ct  en  frapper  les  m^di* 
Bans  et  mescreans,  etc.     {^oinvillc,  i.  23.) 


CHIVALRIC  IDEAL   OF  CHARACTER.  267 

life  by  an  elevated  standard  of  self-respect,  the  elements 
of  which  are  unshaken  fidelity  to  a  pledge,  indifference 
to  danger  and  hardship,  generosity  to  the  weak,  forget- 
fulness  of  self  in  small  things,  and  devotion  to  certain 
ideal  and  noble  ends,  as  the  main  objects  of  life.  There 
go  with  it  too,  in  its  highest  forms,  unselfish  devotion 
to  woman,  courtesy  and  consideration  to  the  lowest 
and  poorest,  an  eager  passion  for  adventure,  danger  and 
warfare  in  a  good  cause,  and  a  supreme  consecration  to 
some  supposed  supernatural  guide  or  inspirer.  It  need 
not  be  said  that  the  highest  moral  traits  of  this  ideal 
are  an  inheritance  from  the  Faith  whose  influence  we 
are  studying.  They  bear  the  clear  traces  of  their  origin. 
Other  and  more  earthly  features  belong  to  the  vigorous 
and  ardent  temperament  of  the  ancient  Germans. 

By  what  means  could  pity  for  the  unfortunate,  gener- 
osity to  the  enemy,  charity  for  the  widow  and  orphan, 
unselfishness  and  consideration  for  others'  feelings  and 
unswerving  truthfulness,  be  taught  the  wild  soldiers  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  as  by  the  Gospels  ? 

The  ideal  before  them,  though  mingled  with  many 
earthly  qualities,  was  a  Christian  one. 

The  defects  of  this  character,  as  history  has  described 
them,  are  but  too  well  known.  The  knight  cared  most  of 
all  for  his  class,  and  soon  began  to  be  indifferent  to,  or  to 
oppress,  the  common  people.  Even  the  chivalric  times 
are  stained  with  terrible  acts  of  cruelty  and  brutality 
against  labouring  men  and  citizens.  The  enthusiastic 
devotion  to  woman  degenerated  into  a  licentiousness  which 
contaminated  a  great  part  of  European  society,  and  af- 
fected considerable  portions  of  literature.  The  barbaric 
jousts  and  tournaments  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with  the 
class  feeling  cultivated  by  chivalry,  transmitted  the  modern 
duel,  one  of  the  barbarisms  which  still  endures  in  modern 


268  GESTA    CHRISTL 

society.  The  spirit  of  chivalry  long  supported  feudah'sm, 
which  was  so  great  an  obstacle  to  popular  liberty  and 
to  material  progress.  The  crusades  were  an  offshoot  of 
chivalry,  and  though  they  indirectly  removed  so  many 
abuses,  and  awakened  in  a  few  directions  the  human 
intellect,  yet  they  brought  untold  calamities  on  Europe, 
and  strengthened  the  power  of  bigotry  and  superstition  for 
centuries. 

It  is  of  course  very  difficult  to  say  how  far  chivalry,  as 
an  institution,  was  a  reality.  It  certainly  was  an  ideal  and 
a  sentiment,  and  left  a  deep  impress  on  society  among 
the  upper  classes.  But  to  what  extent  the  great  body  of 
knights  were  governed  by  their  vows  and  professed  prin- 
ciples, and  whether  this  devotion,  purity  and  disinterested- 
ness existed  more  in  the  fancy  of  poets  than  in  the  real 
life  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  a  question  not  easy  to  deter- 
mine. 

Whatever  in  the  chivalric  ideal  was  a  direct  product 
of  Christian  influence,  has  endured,  and  still  exerts  its 
power.  The  high  respect  for  woman,  a  combined  result, 
as  we  have  often  said,  of  old  German  habit  and  Christian 
teaching,  still  remains  and  is  strongest  in  non-feudal  lands. 
The  remarkable  respect  and  courtesy  shown  to  women 
throughout  the  United  States,  is  at  once  a  chivalric  and 
Christian  inheritance.  If  any  one  would  find  a  modern 
"  survival "  of  the  journeys  of  the  knight  of  chivalry 
with  his  fair  ladye  through  a  savage  wilderness,  let  him 
follow  Miss  Bird's  ride^  through  the  Rocky  Mountains  for 
six  hundred  miles,  accompanied  by  desperadoes  and  wild 
trappers.  Her  influence  in  those  solitary  camps  is  pre- 
cisely the  chivalric  ideal  and  the  Christian  reality. 

The  error  of  chivalry  was  in  centering  all  things  on  .'ielf- 
regard  and  the  opinion  of  a  class, 

'    Ride  ihrough  the  Rocky  Mountains. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  IN  CHIVALRY.  a6q 

Chivalry  as  an  institution  has  passed  away  ; — 

**  The  knights  are  dust, 
And  their  good  swords  are  rust  j 
Their  souls  are  with  the  saints  we  trust." 

But  the  ideal  of  character  endures.  Christianity,  acting 
on  the  German  temperament,  has  contributed  this  ideal 
to  the  humane  and  moral  progress  of  the  leading  races.  It 
has  its  definite  and  peculiar  features, 

A  character  and  life,  where  the  smallest  stain  on  in- 
tegrity is  felt  as  a  sin  ;  where  the  "  word  is  as  the  bond  ; " 
where  the  weak  and  unbefriended,  the  orphan  and  op- 
pressed always  claim  the  immediate  and  unhesitating 
defence  and  support ;  where  woman  is  held  in  purest 
honour ;  where  an  habitual  consideration  and  gentle  cour- 
tesy, especially  for  inferiors,  govern  the  feelings  and  man- 
ners ;  where  there  is  a  capacity  for  true  friendship  and  for 
self- forgetting  services,  and  the  habit  of  hospitality ;  where 
high  aims  and  generous  purposes,  give  an  inherent  and 
unconscious  elevation  and  dignity  to  the  whole  nature  ;  a 
character  in  which  there  is  a  silent  heroism  and  courage 
that  would  face  death  and  every  ill  cheerfully,  in  a  cause 
pleasing  to  the  Master — this  still  lives. 

Certainly  true  chivalry  has  net  died  out  in  modern  days, 
and  is  more  distinctly  Christian  than  ever  before. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

RESUMfi   OF   REFORMS    IN   THE   MIDDLE  AGES. 

The  "  Gesta  Christi"  the  achievements  of  Christianity, 
are  not  like  the  victories  of  a  great  general,  distinct  con- 
quests in  a  given  place,  or  on  a  fixed  date  ;  they  rather 
resemble  the  triumphs  of  science  or  of  civilization.  Here 
and  there,  indeed,  a  definite  and  convincing  step  will 
be  made  in  humane  progress,  but  in  general,  the  minds 
of  man  will  become  first  silently  imbued  with  Christ's 
principles  and  be  personally  transformed  by  affection  for 
Him.  Then,  as  love  and  unselfishness  more  and  more 
control  their  lives,  and  the  responsibility  with  reference  to 
a  future  life  grows,  and  the  habit  increases  of  living  for 
distant  and  impersonal  good,  certain  great  abuses  which 
they  have  hitherto  supported  through  ignorance  and  selfish- 
ness, will  drop  away,  and  gradually  the  great  injustices 
of  human  society  will  be  either  be  uprooted  by  such  men, 
or  will  melt  away  under  the  fervour  of  their  benevolent 
sympathies  and  the  example  of  their  upright  lives. 

Of  many  great  social  evils,  it  is  often  difficult  to  say 
when  they  came  to  an  end.  They  disappeared  before  the 
new  Spirit  in  the  world. 

The  victories  of__Qii'ist  are  silent  victories,  won  in  the 
individual  heart  and  life.  No  history  chronicles  them. 
Their  fruits  are  seen  later  in  the  lessening  or  overthrow  of 
great  social  abuses,  and  in  the  gradual  growth  of  justice, 


RESUME   OF  REFORMS.  271 

benevolence,  purity,  truth,  and  all  those  feelings  and 
practices  which  specially  result  from  Christian  teachings. 
The  Spirit  of  God  everywhere  works  in  human  society, 
and  there  is  a  "natural  progress"  apart  from  Christianity. 
Many  forces,  too,  of  selfishness  or  of  the  intellect  have  aided 
in  the  final  results  of  human  progress.  The  tendencies 
of  commerce,  the  struggles  of  kings  with  barons,  the  asso- 
ciated life  in  cities,  the  opening  influences  of  science, 
have  all  worked  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  to  advance 
mankind  ;  but  no  help  to  right  living  and  towards  a  more 
perfect  state  of  society  has  ever  been  found  like  the 
religion  of  Jesus. 

(i)  Its  first  and  most  powerful  effect  on  barbaric  and 
half  civilized  society  in  Europe  was  the  new  position 
which  it  gave  to  woman,  and  the  sacred  value  it  attached 
to  marriage.  As  centuries  go  on,  the  test  of  advancing 
civilisation  in  each  country  is  the  advancement  in  the 
social,  legal  and  political  position  of  the  weaker  sex.  The 
influence  of  Christianity  from  the  beginning  tended  to 
make  woman  in  all  appropriate  things  the  equal  of  man, 
to  throw  her  influence  into  every  department  of  life,  and 
even  to  surround  her  with  a  certain  sacredness.  In  this,  we 
need  hardly  repeat,  the  new  Faith  was  aided  by  German 
habits  of  thought.  Christianity  purified  the  morals  of 
woman,  bound  her  to  sacred  duties  as  wife  and  mother, 
pledged  her  to  labours  of  humanity  when  single,  and 
everywhere  sought  to  make  her  worthy  of  the  homage  she 
began  to  inspire.  It  changed  the  low  idea  of  marriage, 
common  even  in  the  German  tribes.  It  protected  woman's 
rights  and  her  property,  and  throughout  Europe,  en- 
couraged the  system  of  dower,  which  was  so  important  a 
safeguard  in  a  wild  age.  Family  life  in  these  disturbed 
centuries  was  first  purified  by  the  religion  of  Christ,  and 
from   that  has   sprung  whatever  of   good    now  exists  in 


Z72  GBSTA    CHRJSTl. 

European  social  life.  The  best  human  condition  which 
has  been  transmitted,  which  gives  the  truest  fore-gleam  of 
a  higher  earthly  life  yet  to  be  attained,  is  marriage ; 
and  no  power  known  in  history  has  done  so  much  to 
elevate  and  strengthen  that  as  the  teachings  of  the  great 
Master.  The  **  free  marriage  "  and  easy  divorce  custom- 
ary throughout  Europe  in  the  early  Middle  Ages,  were 
especially  struggled  against  by  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  whatever  is  stable  in  the  union  of  husband 
and  wife  has  been  won  by  it  against  masculine  selfishness 
and  caprice. 

The  reactions  of  the  human  mind  at  this  period  are  not 
chargeable  on  Christianity  ;  neither  the  asceticism  and 
celibacy  of  one  portion  of  society  nor  the  strictness  of  the 
canon-law.  The  Gospels  give  no  countenance  to  any  of 
these  extremes. 

(2)  Human  society  rises  out  of  its  low  estate,  not  merely 
by  elevating  woman,  but  also  by  curbing  the  barbaric 
passion  for  blood-revenge.  The  first  influence  of  a  love 
and  faith  towards  Jesus  Christ  is  to  lead  men  to  imitate 
and  obey  Him  by  controlling  revenge  and  hatred.  This 
religion  accordingly  acts  on  the  half-savage  tribes  by 
making  legal  satisfactions  take  the  place  of  blood-revenge 
and  feuds,  and  elevating  law  in  place  of  violence.  In 
doing  this,  it  may  sometimes  sanctify  capital  punishment, 
as  placing  a  legal  retribution  higher  than  "  blood-money." 
This,  the  first  step  of  barbaric  Europe  from  anarchy  and 
violence  to  a  condition  of  law  and  order,  was  plainly 
assisted  by  the  new  Faith. 

(3)  A  feudal  and  wild  society  falls  naturally  into  "private 
war,"  where  each  chieftain  fights  "  for  his  own  hand,"  but 
under  definite  forms  and  laws.  Europe,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  nearly  reduced  to  anarchy  under  these  uncontrolled 
habits.      The  figure   which   appeared   in  the   storm,  and 


PEACE   OF  GOD.  273 

quieted,  if  only  for  a  time,  the  waves  of  strife,  was  Christ, 
It  is  a  touching  history — to  read  of  the  plundered  peasants, 
the  desolated  towns,  the  wasted  fields,  the  weeping 
widows  and  orphans  under  this  curse  of  unrestrained  war 
and  then  of  some  simple,  enthusiastic  believer,  who  holding 
aloft  an  Agnus  Dei,  goes  from  village  to  village  preaching, 
as  if  a  new  truth,  the  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood,  the 
"  Peace  of  God,"  until  all  men  are  inspired  by  a  new  spirit, 
and  for  months  or  years  the  bloody  swords  are  left  to 
rust,  the  homes  of  the  poor  are  unplundered,  and  an  un- 
wonted peace  of  God  falls  on  a  land  drenched  with 
brothers'  tears  and  blood.  Or  the  messenger  of  religion 
declares  certain  places  and  certain  days  sacred  to  peace, 
and  the  wild  soldiers  and  pirates  are  awed  into  seeming 
quiet,  and  the  poor  and  down-trodden  have  a  brief  respite 
from  the  savage  tempest,  and  society,  under  religion,  gets 
its  first  experience  of  peace.  Surely  the  most  materialistic 
of  sceptics  reading  of  that  "  Peace  of  God  "  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  of  that  sacred  person,  the  Friend  of  man,  calm- 
ing the  bitter  storms  of  human  wrath  and  strife,  must 
be  grateful  that  even  the  so-called  "myth"  of  a  Jesus 
survived,  and  that  it  could  thus  control,  even  for  a  mo- 
ment, the  passions  and  hate  and  blood-thirst  of  men. 

(4)  The  arbitrations  {Ajistrdge)  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
are  the  fruits  at  once  of  the  Christian  and  of  the  com- 
mercial spirit :  they  show  the  first  settlement  of  European 
society,  and  foretoken  that  higher  system  of  Christian 
arbitration,  which  shall  yet  reform  the  relations  of  nations. 
For  in  the  light  of  the  teachings  of  the  great  Master,  and 
of  the  higher  reason,  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  "  private 
war"  is  less  justifiable  than  "public  war,"  as  a  means  of 
redressing  injuries. 

(5)  Among  the  great  impediments  to  progress  in  Europe 
through  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the   brutalizing  influenceS| 

T 


274  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

were  the  unreasonable  and  cruel  methods  of  obtaining 
truth  and  determining  justice  in  both  civil  and  criminal 
cases.  The  "  wager  of  battle  "  and  the  "  ordeal  "  were 
opposed  from  the  beginning  to  the  spirit  of  the  "  Religion 
of  humanity."  The  teachings  by  Christ  allowed  no  such 
mode  of  testing  facts  or  obtaining  justice,  as  single  combat; 
and  superstitious  tests  have  no  support  in  His  words  oi 
in  the  spirit  of  His  life,  The  purest  among  His  followers 
in  every  age  have  objected  to  them  and  argued  against 
them.  As  His  spirit  has  slowly  imbued  more  and  more 
individuals  of  all  classes,  the  barbarous  "judicial  duel"  has 
dropped  out  of  use,  even  as  His  influence  in  modern  times 
has  swept  away  the  "  duel  of  honour."  To  one  inspired 
by  Him  the  appeal  to  irregular  methods  of  ascertaining 
the  will  of  God,  is  an  irreverence  to  the  Father  of  all,  and 
opposed  to  the  very  spirit  of  His  life.  The  abolition  of 
the  ordeal  is  not  indeed  one  of  the  most  apparent  Gesta 
Christi,  but  it  can  be  distinctly  traced  to  Him. 

(6)  Had  the  "  Son  of  Man "  been  in  body  upon  the 
earth  during  the  Middle  Ages,  hardly  one  wrong  and 
injustice  would  have  wounded  His  pure  soul  like  the 
system  of  torture.  To  see  human  beings,  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  innocence,  or  professing  and  believing  the 
purest  truths,  condemned  without  proof  to  the  most  har- 
rowing agonies,  every  groan  or  admission  under  pain 
used  against  them,  their  confessions  distorted,  their  nerves 
so  racked  that  they  pleaded  their  guilt  in  order  to  end  their 
tortures,  their  last  hours  tormented  by  false  ministers  of 
justice  or  religion  who  threaten  eternal  as  well  as  temporal 
damnation,  and  all  this  going  on  for  ages,  until  scarce 
any  innocent  felt  themselves  safe  under  this  mockery  of 
justice  and  religion, — all  this  would  have  seemed  to  the 
Founder  of  Christianity  as  the  worst  travesty  of  His 
faith  and  the  most  cruel  wound  to  humanity. 


ABOLITION  OF   TORTURE.  275 

It  need  not  be  repeated  that  His  spirit  in  each  century 
struggled  with  this  tremendous  evil  and  inspired  the  great 
friends  of  humanity  who  laboured  against  it.  The  main 
forces  in  mediaeval  society,  even  those  which  tended  towards 
its  improvement,  did  not  touch  this  abuse.  Roman  law 
supported  it ;  Stoicism  was  indifferent  to  it ;  Greek  litera- 
tui-e  did  not  affect  it ;  feudalism  and  arbitrary  power 
em  ouraged  a  practice  which  they  could  use  for  their  own 
enc^s  ;  and  even  the  hierarchy  and  a  State  Church  so  far 
forj^ot  the  truths  they  professed  as  to  employ  torture  to 
support  the  "  Religion  of  Love."  But  against  all  these 
powers  were  the  words  of  Jesus,  bidding  men  "Love  your 
enemies  !  "  "  Do  good  to  them  that  spitefully  use  you  !  " 
and  the  like  commands,  working  everywhere  on  individual 
souls,  heard  from  pulpits  and  in  monasteries,  read  over 
by  humble  believers,  and  slowly  making  their  way  against 
barbaric  passion  and  hierarchic  cruelty.  Gradually,  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  the  books  containing 
the  message  of  Jesus  circulated  among  all  classes,  and 
produced  that  state  of  mind  and  heart  in  which  torture 
could  not  be  used  on  a  fellow-being,  and  in  which  such  an 
abuse  and  enormity  as  the  Inquisition  was  hurled  to  the 
earth. 

(7)  The  Jewish  religion  and  the  gospel  of  Jesus  both 
taught  protection  to  the  stranger,  and  help  to  the  unfor- 
tunate. The  old  abuses  inflicted  on  the  stranger  and 
the  shipwrecked  accordingly  melt  away  before  the  new 
teachings.  Almost  every  code  in  Europe,  Charlemagne's 
capitularies,  the  laws  of  the  Northern  tribes,  the  Sachsen- 
spiegel,  the  Anglo-Saxon  laws  and  others,  contain  touching 
reference  to  the  scriptural  commands  in  regard  to  the 
stranger  and  "  far-comer,"  and  enforce  the  duties  of  hos- 
pitality and  mercy.  The  shipwrecked  and  homeless  are  to 
be  gently  and  mercifully  dealt  with,  even  as  all  men  hope 


276  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

to  be  dcitlt  mercifully  with  at  the  great  tribunal.  The 
change  from  that  century  when  a  stranger  in  England 
was  shut  up  in  jail  like  a  thief,  or  a  foreigner  {aubain) 
in  France  became  a  serf  of  the  seigneur,  to  the  compara- 
tively hospitable  laws  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  and  the  contrast  between  the  age  when  vessels 
were  brought  to  wreck  by  false  lights,  and  all  shipwrecked 
were  slaves  and  their  property  fair  plunder,  to  the  age 
when  the  laws  of  all  nations  protect  the  shipwrecked,  and 
almost  all  civilized  peoples  feel  it  a  duty  to  help  such  un- 
fortunates,— these  changes  are  among  the  most  apparent 
and  blessed  of  the  Gesta  Christi, — the  achievements  of 
Christianity.  Jesus  in  human  annals,  were  He  less  than 
He  is,  might  well  be  the  patron-saint  of  the  stranger  and 
the  shipwrecked. 

(8)  The  progress  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  largely  assis- 
ted by  their  codes  of  law.  These  early  efforts  to  establish 
order,  restrain  passion,  cultivate  self-control  and  promote 
humanity,  are  deeply  stamped  with  the  teachings  of  the 
Master.  Some  of  these  codes,  like  the  Anglo-Saxon  laws, 
seem  like  religious  and  moral  exhortations,  rather  than  a 
body  of  legislation.  Nearly  all  of  them  call  up  the  sanc- 
tions of  religion  to  enforce  earthly  injunctions  :  some  appeal 
directly  to  the  teachings  of  our  Lord,  or  the  Bible  :  all 
inculcate  the  gospel  lessons  of  purity,  good-will,  integrity, 
honesty,  truth  and  neighbourly  kindness,  not  alone  as 
moral  and  legal  duties,  but  as  portions  of  religion  ;  as 
pleasing  Him  who  embodied  such  virtues,  and  as  part  of 
men's  responsibility  to  God. 

The  Roman  law  too,  wherever  modified  by  Christian 
influence,  carried  down  the  spirit  of  the  humane  Teacher 
through  ages  of  lust,  cruelty,  and  barbarism.  That  it  did 
not  accomplish  more  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at.  Laws 
can  only  effect  their  best  work  when   they  represent  the 


EDUCATION.  277 

united  opinion  and  feeling  of  society.  Christianity  had 
not  yet  sufficiently  impregnated  individuals  to  transform 
society  and  make  laws  one  of  the  manifestations  of 
religion. 

(9)  Along  with  improvement  of  the  laws  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  went  advance  in  education.  Christianity  opened 
men's  minds  to  all  truth  ;  it  produced  that  humility  which 
is  the  best  guarantee  of  the  intellect  against  conceit  and 
pride, — often  the  greatest  obstacles  to  discovery  and  pro- 
gress ;  it  withdrew  the  faculties  of  superior  men  from 
pursuits  tending  to  damage  and  destruction,  towards  those 
which  would  benefit  humanity.  The  same  result  was  ex- 
perienced in  the  "  Dark  Ages,"  which  has  often  been  since, 
that  a  high  moral  advance  is  favourable  to  the  intellect. 
When  the  spiritual  and  moral  faculties  and  sensibilities 
are  elevated,  the  probability  is  that  the  other  powers  of 
the  soul  will  feel  their  inspiration,  and  reason,  judgment 
and  imagination  be  elevated  by  the  same  influences. 

The  mere  turning  of  the  mind  by  thousands  of  the 
youth  of  Europe  from  war  to  matters  of  religion  was  an 
immense  gain  to  the  intellect.  There  is  only  a  certain 
amount  of  vital  force  in  a  generation,  and  this  during 
many  centuries  was  in  some  degree  drawn  from  plans  of 
mutual  injury,  to  truths  and  thoughts  connected  with  the 
Christian  faith.  The  human  mind  could  not  but  gain  a 
great  advance  from  this  influence  alone.  To  this  effect  of 
religion  was  added  the  power  of  the  Church,  exerted,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  founding  schools  and  institutions  of  learn- 
ing, and  the  influences  of  monastic  life  encouraging  the 
study  and  copying  of  the  classics.  Against  this  latter  is 
to  be  weighed  the  depressing  and  retrograding  power  of 
bigotry  and  superstition,  which  found  their  appropriate 
home  in  the  monastic  life,  and  indeed  all  the  opposition 
of  the  Church  to  pure  science. 


278  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

While  recognising  the  elevating  force  of  the  Christian 
faith  on  the  intellect  of  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
we  should  never  fail  to  acknowledge  the  remarkable 
influence  on  intellectual  progress  in  the  revival  of  classic 
literature  and  of  Arabic  science. 

(lo)  One  of  the  great  steps  in  humane  progress  in  these 
centuries,  and  one  on  which  the  influence  of  the  truths 
preached  in  Palestine  is  peculiarly  apparent,  is  the  gradual 
diminution  or  cessation  of  serfdom  and  slavery.  The 
gospel  of  Christ  in  its  pure  form  is  not  consistent  with 
permanent  slavery.  His  early  ministers  were  called  "the 
brothers  of  the  slave."  They  felt  "  for  them  in  bonds,  as 
those  in  bonds  with  them."  Wherever  He  is  truly  loved 
and  revered,  there  the  fetters  of  the  slave  are  broken. 
This  power  is  shown  at  this  period  in  the  humane  legisla- 
tion of  various  countries  towards  serfs  and  slaves,  based 
often  on  the  avowed  motive  that  "  he  for  whom  Christ 
died,  ought  not  to  be  held  in  bondage."  It  is  shown  in  the 
innumerable  forms  of  will  and  bequests  where  bondsmen 
are  liberated  pro  remedio  aniince,  for  the  salvation  of  the 
soul,  and  to  prepare  for  coming  judgment.  It  is  proved  by 
the  general  influence  of  the  clergy  in  emancipating  captives  ; 
and  in  the  gradual  change  of  slavery  into  serfdom,  and  of 
serfdom  into  freedom.  Sometimes  a  great  act  of  emanci- 
pation, like  that  of  the  city  of  Bologna,  avows  the  religious 
impulse.  Sometimes  an  eloquent  preacher  breaks  up  by 
his  appeals  the  slave  trade,  as  was  done  by  Bishop  Wulf- 
stan,  in  Bristol,  in  the  eleventh  century.  More  often  the 
minds  of  men  and  women  in  all  classes  become  touched 
by  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  until  they  feel  that  to  hold 
a  fellow-being  in  slavery  or  serfdom  is  contrary  to  Christ's 
commands,  and  they  privately  manumit ;  or  they  permit 
laws  to  be  passed  which  gradually  relieved  the  oppressed 
of  their  burdens ;  or  they  accept  some  form   of  compen- 


MANUMISSION  AND  CHARITY.  i1^ 

sation  for  the  services  due  to  them,  and  the  injustice  slowly 
melts    away.      As   the    Scriptures    circulate    among    the 
peasants,   these   become   filled    with    the  new  feelings  of 
human  dignity  imparted  by  the  teachings  of  the  Gospels, 
and   they   everywhere   demand    their   liberty— in    terrible 
outbreaks  which  measure  the  burdens   under  which  they 
suffered;    yet   these   violent   protests,    though    met   with 
greater  violence,  bring  after  them  new  rights  and  liberties 
for  the  serf.     Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  conscience  was 
on  the  side  of  manumission,  as  shown  in  countless  death- 
bed acts  of  emancipation.     The  Church   itself  became  a 
citadel  of  liberty  to  the  bondman.     It  is  true  that  other 
forces  worked  with  the  religious  motive  :  the  influence  of 
cities  and   independent  communes;  the  Stoic  philosophy 
as  felt  in  legislation  ;  the  struggles  of  rival  powers  in  the 
State,  and  the  inconveniences  of  slavery  itself— all  these 
tended  towards  emancipation.     But  the  great  Emancipator 
of  history  is  Jesus   Christ.      Where    He  rules,    there   all 
chains  are  finally  broken  and  the  oppressed  go  free. 

(ii)  It  scarcely  need  be  said  that  all  the  countless 
institutions  of  human  compassion  and  charity,  which 
attempted  throughout  Europe  to  relieve  the  horrible  misery 
following  the  overthrow  of  the  Roman  empire,  came  from 
Him.  The  blessed  associations  of  mercy,  the  hospitals, 
asylums,  refuges,  schools  and  centres  of  charity,  which 
everywhere  radiated  human  mercy  and  goodwill;  the 
lives  of  beneficence  to  which  so  many  noble  souls  devoted 
themselves;  the  innumerable  actions  of  benevolence, 
philanthropy,  and  heroic  self-sacrifice  which  light  up  these 
dark  ages— these  are  all  from  the  "Son  of  Man"— the 
true  Gesta  Christi. 

And  not  entirely  to  be  passed  over  among  His  grander 
achievements,  are  the  grace  and  heroism  and  humanity 
infused  into  Middle  Age  society,  and  so  into  modern  life. 


28o  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

by  the  action  of  His  faith  on  the  German  temperament 
Chivalry  has  indeed  a  large  proportion  of  transitory,  whim- 
sical and  earthly  elements  ;  but  the  humanity  infused  by  it 
into  wars,  the  respect  inspired  for  women,  the  courtesy 
and  consideration  taught,  the  grace  and  gentleness  cast 
over  society,  the  compassion  it  illustrated,  belong  to 
Him  who  embodied  such  pure  qualities  without  the  alloy 
of  class-feeling,  and  who,  as  the  "  Son  of  Man,"  was  in 
sympathy  with  all  conditions  of  men,  and  an  eternal  ideal 
of  compassion  to  the  unfortunate. 

It  is  true  that  Christianity  in  the  Middle  Ages  never 
accomplished  what  should  be  appropriately  expected  of  it 
in  the  reform  of  human  evils.  But  various  circumstances 
were  peculiarly  unfavourable  to  it  as  a  moral  power.  It 
was  first  made  known  among  degenerate  and  corrupt 
races,  inheriting  the  vices  and  conceit  of  ages  of  successful 
violence  and  unrestrained  lust.  It  then  reached  the  wild 
tribes  of  the  north,  who  were  stamped  with  their  own 
savage  qualities,  or  tainted  by  contact  with  Roman  depra- 
vity. But  most  fatal  of  all  were  the  entire  overthrow 
and  confusion  of  society,  and  the  invasion  of  ignorance  and 
lawlessness  consequent  on  the  destruction  of  the  Roman 
empire  ;  and  the  formation  of  a  State  Church  and  hier- 
archy, with  the  natural  paganization  of  large  classes,  who 
were  only  nominal  followers  of  the  great  Teacher. 

This  combination  of  unfavourable  circumstances  has 
delayed  the  triumph  of  Christianity  for  many  centuries. 


III. 


^iE FORMS  IN  HUAfANE  PROGRESS  BROUGHT  ABOUi 

BY  THIS  MORAL  POWER  DURING  THE 

MODERN  PERIOD. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE   POSITION  OF  WOMAN   UNDER  MODERN  INFLUENCES, 

"E  have  seen  in  previous  chapters  that  the  steady- 
drift  of  law  and  custom  in  Christian  countries  has 
been  towards  "  the  personal  and  proprietary  independence  " 
of  woman,  towards  equality  of  rights  with  man,  and  a  posi- 
tion of  high  moral  and  spiritual  influence  in  family  and 
social  life. 

In  the  Roman  period  the  inanus  or  absolute  power  of 
the  husband  over  the  wife,  yielded  to  the  new  spirit  abroad 
and  became  but  a  weak  authority.  Tutelage  was  dons 
away  with,  dower  was  guaranteed,  and  the  right  of  the 
wife  secured  over  her  personal  property.  While  the 
moral  position  of  woman  in  the  Christian  portion  of  the 
empire  grew  into  one  of  remarkable  sacredness  and  power, 
the  example  of  Christ  and  the  apostles  elevated  the 
feebler  sex  in  the  moral  field,  and  threw  into  their  hands 
the  management  of  many  of  the  charitable  and  spiritual 
interests  of  the  new  communities  of  believers. 

The  Middle  Ages  brought  into  the  world  a  fresh  senti- 
ment of  respect  for  woman — a  characteristic  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes — to  strengthen  the  Christian  feeling  of  reverence. 
But  the  German  habit  of  mind — of  measuring  civil  rights 
and  social  position  by  physical  power  or  the  capacity  of 
bearing  arms — tended  to  depress  the  standing  of  woman 

in  all  countries  under  the  influence  of  Teutonic  customs; 

383 


284  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

while  the  ascetic  and  Oriental  theories  in  regard  to  marriage 
and  woman  which  had  arisen  in  the  Church  also  com- 
bined to  make  the  legal  and  social  status  of  the  female 
sex  below  that  resulting  from  the  example  and  teach- 
ings of  the  Master,  and  below  what  was  suited  to  the  con- 
ditions of  progress. 

The  greatest  inequalities  and  injustices  rested  upon 
woman  in  the  oldest  and  most  characteristic  Teutonic 
tribes,  the  Scandinavians,  and  among  the  Norman-English. 
Greater  privileges  were  allowed  her  among  the  German 
tribes  of  Central  Europe,  and  in  countries  where  Roman 
law  (Christianized)  had  a  greater  power.  But  here  again, 
ascetic  influences,  under  the  canon  law,  depressed  her 
position,  especially  in  the  married  state  One  ideal, 
however,  survived  throughout  Europe  among  the  higher 
and  more  martial  classes,  which  everywhere  exalted  the 
weaker  sex  and  produced  an  effect  unknown  to  antiquity, 
even  greatly  influencing  modern  society.  To  chivalry 
woman  is  indebted  in  the  Middle  Ages  for  a  position  she 
had  never  before  enjoyed  in  history,  which  gave  her  a 
charm  almost  unknown  till  then,  and  which  spread  over 
a  society  steeped  in  barbarism  a  grace  and  refinement 
that  have  come  down  to  our  day. 

It  will  be  seen  then  that  the  position  of  woman  from  the 
advent  of  Christianity  till  the  modern  period,  has  been  a 
composite  one  in  civilized  countries.  In  some  countries 
she  has  lost  personal  independence  and  control  of  property 
in  marriage  ;  in  others  she  has  retained  her  proprietary 
power,  and  has  been  substantially  independent  of  her 
husband  ;  again  in  others  she  has  entered  into  a  partner- 
ship in  property  and  interests  in  marriage. 

In  some  regions,  under  feudal  rights,  her  hand  had  been 
under  the  control  of  her  guardian  and  became  venal.  In 
others  she  had  been  under  the  guardianship  of  the  king 


MODERN  POSITION  OF   WOMAN.  285 

alone  ;  and  finally  she  achieved  such  independence  as  to 
control  her  property  herself  and  govern  her  own  vassals. 

Tutelage  continued  much  longer  in  some  parts  of  Europe 
than  in  others ;  and  canon  law  in  many  portions  of  the 
Continent  brought  the  wife  under  a  peculiar  subjection, 
though  leaving  the  maiden  singularly  free. 

The  Christian  idea  we  believe  to  be  the  entire  equality  of 
man  and  woman  in  rights  and  responsibilities,  though  this 
must  be  limited  by  practical  necessities  and  the  present 
condition  of  society.  The  drift,  in  all  ages,  under  the 
teachings  of  the  Master,  has  been  towards  this  ideal  ;  but 
like  His  teachings  in  regard  to  war  and  utter  unselfishness, 
they  must  be  compromised  somewhat  to  suit  the  present 
state  of  the  world.  Each  age  will  see  an  approach  towards 
that  happy  condition,  wherein  bond  and  free,  male  and 
female,  learned  and  ignorant, are  "one  in  Him,"  with  equal 
rights  and  equal  possibilities  (so  far  forth  as  nature  permits). 

The  modern  position  of  woman,  as  related  to  Christi- 
anity, is  perhaps  best  tested  by  her  position  in  the  society 
and  under  the  law  of  the  United  States. 

The  American  Union  naturally  inherited,  through  Eng- 
land, the  old  Teutonic  ideas  in  regard  to  woman's  position 
in  marriage.  They  were  certainly  not  the  ideas  of  the 
Founder  of  Christianity,  whose  few  words  in  regard  to 
marriage  and  His  whole  bearing  towards  women,  gave  an 
impression  of  His  tender  respect  for  them,  and  of  His  sense 
of  the  sacredness  and  equal  value  of  the  tie.  Nor  are  they 
ideas  of  the  German  tribes  of  the  centre  and  south  of 
Europe,  who  allowed  a  much  greater  independence  to  the 
married  woman,  and  more  personal  rights  over  her  property. 
Nor  are  they  altogether  the  principles  of  the  canonists  or 
the  advocates  of  the  extreme  churchly  view. 

The  ecclesiastical  authorities  held  indeed  the  theory  of 
the  inferiority  and  subjection  of  woman  in  marriage  ;  but 


286  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

they  were  equally  earnest  in  favour  of  the  coinmunio  bono- 
mm,  the  partnership  of  property,  and  of  the  protection  to 
the  woman  in  securing  her  dower.  Then  they  held  to  the 
idea,  which  nowhere  appears  in  the  English  common  law, 
of  marriage  as  an  impurity  and  a  degradation  to  man  and 
woman. 

The  English  common  law  ideas  of  woman  and  marriage 
evidently  came  down  from  the  old  Scandinavian  customs 
and  principles.  The  sex  incapable  of  bearing  arms 
could  not  appear  in  the  highest  form  of  legal  trial,  the 
judicial  duel,  and  hence  must  be  represented  by  a  tutor 
or  guardian.  The  husband  became  the  natural  guardian 
of  his  wife,  and  both  represented  and  absorbed  the 
person  and  property  of  his  ward.  Legal  rights  were 
measured  by  physical  power.  Then  the  archaic  idea 
came  in  of  retaining  the  property  of  the  woman  in  her 
new  family,  and  preventing  both  her  relatives  or  herself 
separating  it  from  her  husband's.  Thus,  perhaps,  arose 
the  peculiar  English  idea  of  the  married  woman  which  has 
come  to  us  in  the  common  law.  Under  it  the  wife's  legal 
existence  was  suspended  or  extinguished  during  marriage  ; 
her  property  was  sacrificed,  and  she  was  placed  almost 
absolutely  in  the  hands  of  her  husband  as  regards  civil 
rights.  Her  fortune  passed  to  her  husband  for  his  tem- 
porary or  permanent  enjoyment.  She  could  not  earn 
anything  for  herself,  nor  in  general  make  any  legal 
contract,  sue  or  be  sued,  because  she  was  not  legally  a 
person.^  The  great  dramatist  only  pictures  the  common 
lav  when  he  makes  one  of  his  characters  declare  :  "  I  will 
be  master  of  what  is  mine  own.  She  is  my  goods,  my 
chattels ;  she  is  my  house,  my  household  stuff,  my  field, 
my  barn,  my  horse,  my  ox,  my  ass,  my  anything." 

The  husband,  on  the  other  hand,  loses  little  or  nothing 
*  Schouler,  Domestic  Relations,  etc. 


THE    WIFE    UNDER   COMMON  LAW.  287 

of  his  independence;  but,  as  a  compensation,  the  law 
compels  him  to  pay  his  wife's  debts,  not  only  when  she 
acted  as  his  agent,  but  those  incurred  before  marriage. 
The  husband  and  wife  have  each  an  interest  in  one 
another's  landed  property,  but  the  advantage  is  always  with 
the  husband.  The  wife  has  an  interest  alone  after  her 
husband's  death,  she  has  none  as  wife.  He  is  permitted 
despotic  sway.  Under  the  old  legal  nomenclature  he  was 
the  baron,  she  the  feme.  If  the  husband  killed  the  wife, 
under  the  old  laws,  he  was  tried  as  if  he  had  killed  any 
other  person ;  but  with  the  wife,  the  offence  was  like 
treason,  a  more  atrocious  crime,  and  she  was  denied 
*'  benefit  of  clergy."  In  case  of  children  and  real  estate 
left  without  a  will,  a  son,  though  younger,  inherited  before 
a  daughter.  The  wife's  personal  property  belonged  to  her 
husband,  which  he  can  bequeath  to  another  ;  if  he  dies 
without  will,  she  has  one-third  of  the  personal  property 
if  there  are  children;  one-half  if  there  are  none.  This, 
however,  is  a  provision  derived  from  the  Roman  rather 
than  from  the  old  English  law. 

The  husband  is  absolute  master  of  the  wife's  rents  and 
profit  from  landed  property  during  their  marriage,  and 
if  there  are  children  he  retains  a  life  interest  in  the  real 
estate.  If  the  wife  survive,  she  has  only  a  right  to  dower, 
or  one-third  of  the  real  estate  for  life.  The  husband,  aftei 
his  wife's  death,  has  a  right  of  "  curtesy "  in  her  estate ; 
but  the  wife  at  his  death  has  no  such  right ;  she  is  taxed 
on  other  property  than  her  dower,  without  representation.- 
"The  very  goods  which  a  man  giveth  to  his  wife,"  says  a 
curious  work  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  "  Woman's 
Lawyer," 2  "are  still  his  owne ;  her  chaine,  her  bracelets, 

'  Blackstone,  \.  445,  Note. 

2  The  Lawwes  Resolutions  oj  Women! s  Rights,  p.  129.  1632, 
London.     It  should  be  remarked  that  Magria  Charta  protected  dower. 


288  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

her  apparcll,  are  all  her  good-man's  goods.  If  before 
marriage  the  woman  were  possessed  of  horses,  sheepe, 
corne,  Woole,  Plate  and  Jewels,  all  manner  of  moveable 
substance  is  presently  by  conjunction  the  husband's,  to 
sell,  keep,  or  bequeath  if  he  die."  ^ 

The  husband's  and  wife's  legal  existence  was  merged 
into  one,  and  that  was  the  husband's.^ 

This  state  of  coverture  was  defined  as  that  of  o«e 
"  covered,"  or  sub  potestate  viri,  under  the  absolute  power 
of  the  husband.  "  The  Law  of  Nature  hath  put  her  under 
the  obedience  of  her  husband,  and  hath  submitted  her  will 
to  his,"  which  she  is  not  permitted  to  contradict  during  her 
life.^     She  wants  free  will  as  minors  want  judgment.^ 

Among  other  singular  injustices  inflicted  on  women  by 
this  old  Teutonic  system,  is  that  the  wife,  at  the  decease 
of  her  husband,  was  not  allowed  to  administer  in  pre- 
ference to  his  kindred,  on  the  personal  estate,  though  it  had 
once  been  entirely  hers.  He,  on  the  other  hand,  could 
administer  on  her  estate  for  his  own  benefit,  and  exclude 
her  kindred  altogether  even  from  a  share  in  the  assets.^ 

If  she  survived,  she  had  only  her  own  real  estate  and 
such  of  her  personal  property  as  he  had  not  appropriated 
to  his  own  use,  and  a  {ew  unimportant  articles  ("para- 
phernalia").    She  cannot  restrain  his  rights  by  will. 

Till  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary,  Blackstone  states," 
woman  by  the  English  common  law  could  receive  sentence 
of  death  and  be  executed  for  the  first  offence  in  such 
crimes  as  larceny,  bigamy,  and  manslaughter,  while  a 
man  (who  could  read)  was,  for  the  same  offences,  subject 

1  P.  130. 

2  Sa  feme  et  lui  ne  sont  fors  que  un  person  en  ley.  {Littleton^  Liv. 
tL  sect.  168). 

2  Baron  ct  Feme,  p.  71.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  71  (1719). 

*  Schouler^  p.  61.  •  VoL  i.  p.  445, 


WOMAN  UNDER   COMMON  LAW.  289 

only  to  the  burning  of  the  hand  or  a  few  months'  imprison- 
ment. This,  however,  is  a  discrimination  against  woman  as 
not  being  admitted  to  spiritual  orders,  rather  than  against 
her  as  woman.  In  case  of  a  daughter's  ruin  by  the 
deceits  of  a  pretended  lover,  the  only  reparation  to  the 
unhappy  father  was  through  the  plea,  that  she  was  his 
servant  and  that  he  was  deprived  of  the  benefit  of  her 
labour,  and  that  the  seducer  had  trespassed  on  his 
premises. 

"  Female  honour,  which  is  dearer  to  the  sex  than  their 
lives,"  says  this  authority,  "is  left  by  common  law  to  the 
sport  of  an  abandoned  calumniator,"  referring  of  course  to 
oral  defamation.  The  elopement  of  a  wife  with  a  guilty 
partner  took  away  from  her,  by  an  ancient  statute,  all  right 
of  dower.  The  husband  might  commit  the  same  offence 
and  still  retain  a  right  over  his  wife's  property. 

"A  poor  woman,"  says  the  "  Woman's  Lawyer,"^  "shall 
have  but  the  third  foote  of  her  husband's  lands  when  he  is 
dead,  for  all  the  service  she  did  him  during  the  acouple- 
ment  (a  long  time  and  tedious),  and  if  she  be  extravagant 
with  a  friend,  this  is  an  elopement  and  a  forfeiture."  The 
criminal  conduct  of  men,  the  author  claims,  is  not  noticed  , 
"they  may  lope  over  ditch  and  dale,  a  thousand  out-ridings 
and  out-biddings  is  no  forfeiture,  but  as  soon  as  the  good 
wife  is  gone  the  bad  man  will  have  her  land,  not  the  third, 
but  every  foote  of  it."  ^ 

The  husband,  too,  as  in  almost  all  the  Teutonic  codes, 
had  the  right  to  beat  his  wife.  "Justice  Brooke,"  says  the 
Woman  s  Lawyer,  "  affirmeth  plainly  that  if  a  man  beat 
an  outlaw,  a  traitor,  a  pagan,  his  villein,  or  his  wife,  it  is 
dispunishable,  because  by  the  Law  Common  these  persons 

The  Lawwcs  Resolutions  of  Women's  Rights. 

9   P.   146. 

u 


290  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

can  have  no  action.     God  send  gentlewomen  better  sport 
or  better  companie  !  "  ^ 

The  tendency  of  the  early  English  common  law,  was  met 
in  the  English  legislation,  by  the  influences  of  right  reason, 
and  Christianity.  The  principles  of  the  Roman  law  and 
of  equity  were  early  applied  to  correct  the  evils  and  the 
injustices  of  the  old  Teutonic  code.  The  Lord  Chancellor's 
Court  or  Court  of  Chancery,  which  was  essentially  a  Court 
of  Equity,  became  a  court  of  great  importance  and  of 
ordinary  jurisdiction,  even  as  far  back  as  Edward  III. 
In  the  reign  of  James  I.  adjudication  was  obtained  through 
this  court  to  secure  to  the  married  woman  a  separate  use 
of  her  property ;  and  by  1695,  it  was  clearly  established 
that  a  wife  might  have  her  separate  estate  in  trust.  ^ 
Especially  during  the  last  hundred  years,  a  doctrine  of 
woman's  rights  more  consonant  to  humane  and  Christian 
ideas  has  been  maintained  in  the  Equity  Courts  of  England. 
The  great  truth  everywhere  urged  by  the  Master,  of  the 
distinct  personality  and  responsibility  of  each  human 
being,  has  been  applied  to  the  woman  as  wife  by  these 
courts,  and  her  equality  with  man  more  and  more  ad- 
vanced. The  Married  Women's  Property  Acts  of  1870, 
1874,  and  especially  that  of  1882,  seem  to  give  absolute 
liberty  to  the  wife  of  acquiring,  holding,  and  disposing  of 
any  property  as  her  separate  property ;  so  that  even  the 
wages  of  a  married  woman  in  Great  Britain,  the  profits 
of  her  literary,  artistic  or  scientific  skill,  her  deposits  in 
savings  banks,  and  indeed  all  property  which  may  belong  to 
her  at  marriage,  or  be  acquired  by  her  during  marriage,  is 
hers,  as  if  she  were  a  fevic  sole.  We  do  not  dwell  on  these 
important  stages  of  humane  progress,  because  the  American 
legislation  better  shows  the  high-water  mark  of  this  drift 
of  ideas  and  of  practices  under  the  power  of  Religion. 
'  P.  128.  '  Spencer's  Equity  yurispnuicncey  p.  596 


AMERICAN  LEGISLATION  ON   WOMAN,         291 

American  Legislation. — The  highest  fruit  of  this  influence 
on  legislation  as  to  women,  is  to  be  seen  undoubtedly  in 
the  United  States,  and  particularly  in  the  legislation  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  which  has  always  led  in  the  field 
of  humane  administration. 

The  reforms  in  this  matter  seem  to  have  begun  in 
the  New  England  States — especially  in  Massachusetts  and 
Maine — early  in  this  century.  The  first  object  was  to 
secure  the  independence  of  wives  who  were  abandoned, 
or  of  those  whose  husbands  were  convicts,  runaways  or 
profligates.  A  public  recognition  was  made  of  marriage 
settlements  and  of  trusts  for  the  wife's  separate  benefit. 
Then  her  right  was  secured  to  her  of  disposing  of  her 
property  by  will,  and,  in  some  States,  her  estate  was 
exempted  from  liability  for  her  husband's  debts.  The 
great  and  sweeping  reforms  in  this  direction,  however,  date 
from  American  legislation  in  1848.^  These  laws  extend 
the  doctrine  of  a  separate  estate  for  the  wife  ;  they  provide 
that  her  real  and  personal  property  shall  not  be  put  at  the 
disposal  of  the  husband  or  made  liable  for  his  debts.  It 
continues  her  sole  estate,  and  she  is  permitted  to  receive 
property  in  like  manner  by  gift,  grant,  devise  or  bequest. 
This  humane  and  advanced  legislation  has  been  imitated 
and  followed.  Most  liberal  provisions  have  been  enacted, 
securing  the  property  held  by  a  woman  before  her 
marriage,  and  all  acquisitions  made  through  her  husband 
or  third  persons,  after  marriage.  All  her  earnings  are  in 
her  own  power,  and  there  is  almost  complete  emancipation 
from  marital  dominion.  She  can  bequeath  by  will  as  if 
she  were  single.^ 

In   1860-62,   these  rights    were   still   farther   enlarged.' 

'  Schoider,  p.  209.     These  are  reforms  especially  in  the  legislation 
of  the  State  of  New  York. 
2  New  York  legislation.     See  Schouler^  •  Ibid, 


292  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

Married  women  were  permitted  entire  control  of  theif 
personal  property,  and  could  carry  on  any  trade  or  per- 
form any  labour  on  their  sole  account ;  and  their  earnings 
could  be  invested  for  themselves.  A  wife  is  permitted  to 
sell  or  convey  her  own  real  estate,  to  sue  and  be  sued,  to 
bring  an  action  in  her  own  name  against  any  person  or 
body  corporate,  and  to  make  any  bond  to  bind  her  separate 
property.     None  of  these  transactions  bind  her  husband. 

A  judgment  can  be  enforced  against  her  separate 
estate.^  Of  the  general  position  of  married  women  in 
the  legislation  of  New  York,  a  high  authority,  Schouler, 
says,  "  Married  women  in  that  State  are  well  nigh  eman- 
cipated altogether  from  marital  restraints,  so  far  as 
concerns  their  property,  while  the  husband's  own  rights 
therein  are  exceedingly  precarious  "  ^ 

A  recent  case  in  the  courts  of  New  Hampshire,  gives  a 
practical  illustration  of  the  advanced  American  view  of  the 
position  of  woman.  A  husband  was  sued  for  slanderous 
words  of  his  wife  against  another  woman.  He  took  the 
ground  that  he  was  not  responsible  for  the  torts  of  his 
wife  ;  that  her  property  was  not  his,  nor  her  earnings  his, 
nor  her  legal  subjection  to  him  any  greater  than  his  to  her, 
and  that  he  was  no  more  liable  for  her  wrong  doing  than 
she  for  his.  The  court  sustained  his  demurrer,  stating  that 
"  the  husbands  of  these  female  parties  are  strangers  to  the 
proceedings."  The  Boston  Herald  (April  15,  1882),  quotes 
thus  from  Judge  Foster's  decision  : — 

"As  Judge  Foster  states  it,  the  woman  being  thus  by  the  common 
law  utterly  within  her  liusband's  control,  his  chattel,  his  'ox,'  he  became 
personally  and  solely  answerable  for  her  torts,  as  for  the  trespasses  of 
his  other  domestic  cattle  ;  and,  of  course,  the  law  could  pursue  no  other 
consistent  system  than  that  wiiich  declared  all  her  contracts  absolutely 
void.     Such   was   the  social  and  legal  status    of  a   married  woman 

'  Kent's  Comm.y  ii   ill,  note.  ^  Domestic  Relaiioiii,  p.  214. 


POSITION  OF  THE  MOTHER.  .    293 

centuries  ago  ;  and  the  change  of  her  condition  before  the  law  seems 
to  be  much  less  in  England  than  in  New  Hampshire,  The  influences 
of  Christianity  and  a  more  widely  diffused  and  higher  system  of  moral 
and  religious  education  have  gradually  ameliorated  woman's  social 
condition,  and  elevated  her  to  the  state  of  dignity  and  importance  she 
possesses  to-day.  Like  all  the  changes  of  advancing  civilization,  this 
change  has  been  very  gradual,  but  it  has  been  a  steady  march  from 
slavery  to  freedom.  Herbert  Spencer  says  that  in  the  United  States 
women  have  reached  a  higher  status  in  the  social  structure  than  any- 
where else,  and  Judge  Foster  adds  that  it  is  equally  true  that  in  many 
of  the  States,  certainly  in  New  Hampshire  more  than  anywhere  else, 
have  the  legal  distinctions  between  the  sexes  been  swept  away."  He 
continues  : 

"  Thus,  by  progress  in  the  same  direction,  by  changes  religious, 
social,  customary,  legislative  and  judicial,  the  rule  of  the  common  law 
has  been  abolished  and  obliterated ;  and  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  say 
that  in  New  Hampshire  a  married  woman  is  a  household  slave  or  a 
chattel,  or  that  in  New  Hampshire  the  conjugal  unity  is  represented 
solely  by  the  husband.  By  custom  and  by  statute  the  wife  is  now 
joint  master  of  the  household  and  not  a  slave  or  a  servant.  The  rule 
now  is  that  her  legal  existence  is  not  suspended.  So  practically  has 
the  ancient  unity  become  dissevered  and  dissolved  that  the  wife  may 
not  only  have  her  separate  property,  contracts,  credits,  debts,  wages, 
and  causes  of  separate  action  growing  out  of  a  violation  of  her  personal 
rights,  but  she  may  enter  into  legal  contract  with  her  husband  and 
enforce  it  by  suit  against  him."  - 

We  have  observed  how,  in  the  history  of  the  past, 
Christianity  has  strengthened  the  pcjsition  of  the  mother. 

From  the  allusion  in  Justinian's  Code,^  where  reverence 
is  enjoined  on  the  sons  towards  their  mother,  but  no  legal 
lights  are  given  her,  and  the  dictum  of  Blackstone,  that 
"  a  mother  as  such  is  entitled  to  no  power,  but  only  to 
reverence,"^  to  the  American  legislation  of  i860,  there  is 

'  This  case  has  not  yet,  however,  become  a  precedent.  It  only 
shows  the  tendency  of  judicial  decisions. 

2  Code,  lib.  viii.  tit.  xlvii.  4.  ,  .  .  reverentiam  autem  debitam 
exhibere  matri  filios  coget. 

^  Comm.y  i.  453. 


394  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

a  progress  which  shows  the  profound  power  of  the  ideas 
scattered  by  this  Faith. 

The  inferior  legal  position  of  the  mother  in  the  English 
courts  of  law,  as  distinguished  from  equity,  was  no  fiction. 
An  English  case  ^  has  often  been  qucfted  where  a  father 
was  permitted  by  the  court  to  take  the  children  from 
a  blameless  wife,  and  place  them  under  the  charge  of  his 
guilty  partner.  Judge  Story,  even  before  the  reformed 
legislation,  ventured  to  contradict  the  presumption  of  the 
English  law,  that  the  father  has  any  vested  right  in  the 
custody  of  the  children.  But  in  the  United  States,  such  is 
the  power  of  the  humane  principles  of  the  Gospels  taught 
in  every  pulpit  and  school,  the  people  become  imbued 
with  sentiments  of  justice  and  mercy  before  the  lawyers  or 
the  judges,  and  legislation  has  been  usually  in  advance  of 
the  courts. 

By  the  legislation  of  i860  (afterwards  changed),  every 
married  woman  was  declared  joint  guardian,  with  the 
husband,  of  their  children,  with  equal  rights.  Earlier 
statutes  gave  the  custody  of  the  child  to  the  mother  where 
the  partners  lived  separated  without  divorce.  In  some 
States,  the  preference  was  given  to  the  mother,  where  the 
child  was  very  young.  In  general  by  American  legis- 
lation, the  custody  of  the  child  is  determined  by  its 
interests  and  not  the  claim  of  the  parents.  The  mother 
in  a  legal  point  of  view  may  be  said  to  stand  on  an 
equality,  in  most  respects,  with  the  father  in  the  more 
advanced  American  legislation. 

Another  peculiarity  of  legislation  in  the  same  direction, 
is  the  protection  afforded  to  the  young  girl  against  the 
deceptions  of  the  other  sex.  In  many  States,  seduction 
accompanied  with  promise  of  marriage  is  a  serious  crime, 
and  is  severely  punished;  and  the  loss  to  the  girl  o\ 
'  Rex  V.  Greenhill. 


PARTNERSHIP  IN  PROPERTY.  igs 

hitherto  pure  character  is  not  measured  by  the  value  of  her 
services  to  her  father  or  her  guardian,  but  by  the  higher 
considerations  in  the  new  estimate  of  woman. 

Judge  Kent  says  very  justly  of  all  this  class  of  legis- 
lation in  woman's  favour  ;  "  The  pre-eminence  of  the 
Christian  nations  in  Europe  and  of  their  descendants  and 
colonists  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  is  most  strikingly 
displayed  in  the  equality  and  dignity  which  their  insti- 
tutions confer  upon  the  female  charcicter."  ^ 

The  Civil  law  in  such  southern  portions  of  the  Union 
as  had  been  brought  more  closely  under  the  influence 
of  Roman  law,  secured  a  remarkable  independence  to 
the  wife.  But  the  coimnnnio  bonorum  or  partnership  in 
property,  which  is  a  feature  of  marriage  under  this  legis- 
lation, was  one  of  the  slow  gains  won  by  Christianity  ; — 
Roman  law  having  substantially  dropped  it  before  Justinian. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  where  we  find  this  feature,  it  is 
a  fruit  of  the  religious  sentiment,  urging  justice  and 
equality  in  the  marriage  relation.  It  cannot  be  regarded, 
however,  as  so  high  a  stage  of  progress,  or  so  pre-eminently 
Christian,  as  the  position  assigned  to  woman  in  miarriage 
by  the  American  legislation  ;  for  each  human  being, 
under  the  Faith  taught  in  Galilee,  is  an  independent 
responsible  existence  having  a  right  from  all  others  to 
the  same  justice  and  consideration  which  he  is  bound  to 
extend.  Each  woman  under  these  teachings  has  a  claim 
to  the  utmost  exercise  of  her  capacities,  and  to  perfect 
equality  with  all  others  as  to  rights  of  property  and  per- 
sonal rights.  Woman  from  the  earliest  times  of  Christianity 
held  a  position  of  independence  and  of  great  responsibility. 
Marriage  under  the  religious  conception  is  the  highest 
moral  union,  and  whatever  is  yielded  by  the  one  sex  is 
given  up  from  motives  of  unselfish  afiection,  and  the 
'  Coiiiin.,  vol.  ii.  p.  187. 


296  GESTA    CHRIST/, 

claims  of  the  one  sex  are  balanced  by  those  of  the  other 
Accordingly  rights  of  property  in  both  are  equal ;  and 
personality  may  be  asserted  in  them,  if  it  be  for  the 
highest  interest  of  both. 

The  progress  of  the  religious  sentiment  and  of  right  rea- 
son will  be  continually  in  this  direction,  towards  asserting 
the  absolute  legal  independence  and  equality  of  woman. 

It  will  here  be  asked  :  Does  not  this  lead  to  the  share 
of  women  in  government?  Undoubtedly  it  does  ultimately. 
Christianity  by  itself  no  more  teaches  female  suffrage  than 
it  does  republicanism  or  free  trade.  But  it  throws  into 
human  society  that  sentiment  of  equality  before  God,  that 
principle  of  equal  rights  and  equal  responsibility,  and  of 
universal  brotherhood,  which  all  lead  logically  to  these 
results.  The  thorough  application  and  carrying  out  of 
Christian  principles  in  human  society  is  a  result  only  to  be 
expected  in  distant  ages.  In  the  meantime  it  is  the  part 
of  wisdom  to  prepare  the  world  for  these  great  changes, 
and  to  begin  them  by  slow  and  careful  steps.  In  the 
United  States,  and  England,  a  useful  beginning  has  been 
made  in  regard  to  woman,  by  admitting  her  vote  in  elec- 
tions for  school  trustees  and  in  municipalities.  The  time 
is  not  far  distant  when  in  some  communities  her  vote, 
limited  by  education  and  property,  will  be  received  on 
larger  fields  of  suffrage.  So  great  and  vital  a  change 
will  thus  be  made  slowly  and  with  careful  prepara- 
tion. Woman  will  be  trained  and  educated  for  her  new 
duty. 

The  final  effects  on  society  of  this  important  reform  can- 
not now  be  predicted  ;  but  as  it  is  in  the  line  of  all  the 
other  great  changes  which  have  attended  humane  progress 
under  Christianity,  we  may  reasonably  hope  that  the  ulti- 
mate results  will  be  equally  happy  for  mankind. 

The  moral  position  of  woman  in  the  leading  Christian 


WOMAN  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES.  297 

races  is  far  advanced  beyond  anything  known  in  the  past. 
A  very  considerable  portion  of  the  education  of  the  youth 
of  the  United  States,  for  instance,  is  in  the  hands  of  female 
teachers.  The  public  and  private  schools,  the  academies, 
high  schools,  ward  and  village  schools  are  taught  to  a  very 
large  degree  by  women.  Colleges  for  women,  too,  have 
sprung  up  in  various  States,  in  many  of  which  advanced 
courses  of  instruction  are  pursued.  The  medical  profession 
is  open  to  a  certain  extent  to  women  ;  and  there  are  female 
physicians  with  large  and  profitable  practices.  But  the 
field  where  women  publicly  are  most  efficient  is  the 
management  of  charities,  especially  for  the  young.  They 
conduct  most  of  the  orphan  asylums,  "homes"  for  the 
poor,  industrial  schools,  foundling  asylums  and  similar 
chanties  throughout  the  United  States.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  the  poor  are  brought  continually  under  their 
influence.  The  ladies  of  the  educated  classes  organized, 
during  the  Civil  War,  the  remarkable  agency  for  helping 
the  wounded,  which  worked  in  co-operation  with  the  Sani- 
tary Commission,  and  relieved  an  untold  amount  of  misery. 
This  association  was  in  affiliation  with  hundreds  of  socie- 
ties of  relief  throughout  the  country,  and  was  as  remark- 
able for  its  organization  as  its  humanity. 

Since  the  war,  women  have  mainly  founded  the  various 
important  societies  for  inspecting  public  charities,  and  the 
charity  organization  associations  which  have  reformed  so 
many  public  abuses,  and  prevented  and  relieved  so  much 
misfortune. 

Women  are  now  being  appointed  for  the  State  boards 
of  charity,  the  school  boards,  and  similar  important  public 
organizations. 

Almost  equally  important  work  has  been  done  by 
women  in  Europe,  in  labours  of  public  charity,  in  assist- 
ance to  the  wounded,  and  in  the  direction  of  education. 


298  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

In  England,  ladies  of  position  have  been  elected  to  the 
school  boards,  and  have  been  placed  in  public  offices  con- 
nected with  charities.  They  have  long  been  (wjhere  they 
represented  property)  members  of  vestries  and  have  voted 
in  municipalities. 

In  Germany,  during  the  Franco-German  War,  associa- 
tions of  women  everywhere  sought  to  heal  the  terrible 
evils  of  war,  and  to  relieve  the  wounded,  whether  among 
the  enemy  or  their  own  countrymen. 

In  social  and  private  life  in  the  United  States,  womar 
has  profound  and  often  well-deserved  influence.  In  hei 
early  direction  of  the  education  and  religious  training  of 
the  young,  in  her  social  influence  and  the  moral  power 
she  exerts  over  the  other  sex  in  all  classes,  we  begin  to 
observe  the  true  and  legitimate  effects  of  the  faith  of  Jesus. 
In  the  lower  classes  she  checks  intemperance,  and  con- 
tinually strives  to  raise  the  children  to  a  higher  range  of 
life.  In  the  middle  classes  she  urges  the  moral  side  of  all 
causes,  promotes  honesty  in  the  payment  of  debts,  sup- 
ports the  best  movements  of  charity  and  religion,  and  has 
often  a  high  ambition  for  the  education  and  advancement 
of  her  children.  In  the  fortunate  classes,  amid  much  fri- 
volity and  display,  the  sex  still  keeps  family  life  pure,  and 
leads  the  other  in  all  humane  efforts,  and  in  real  religious 
feeling.  It  is  true  that  the  sex  has  much  to  answer  for  in 
the  United  States,  in  stimulating  extravagance  and  vulgar 
ambition.  But  woman  still  leads  the  nation  in  all  the 
higher  and  more  unselfish  aims  and  labours. 

And  if,  as  often  seems,  a  night  of  scepticism  in  America 
and  Europe  is  to  descend  upon  the  most  generous  minds 
among  the  men,  woman  will  still  keep  lighted  the  torch 
of  faith,  and  guide  the  race  till  the  morning  shines  again 
to  all.  Whatever  position  woman  holds  in  civilized 
society   is   clearly  a  fruit    of  Christianity.     Even   should, 


WOMAN  UNDER  AGNOSTICISM.  899 

by  evil  chance,  agnosticism  at  length  become  for  a  time 
the  creed  of  the  world,  Christian  traditions  would  long 
survive.  But  if  after  the  lapse  of  ages  all  men  and  all 
women  should  live  "  without  God  and  without  hope " 
in  the  world,  and  the  Christian  "  Good  News "  be  as 
a  long-forgotten,  once  welcome  sound  of  Sabbath  bells 
heard  in  a  dream,  and  reverence  for  anything  supernal 
have  faded  away,  and  the  ties  of  earth  be  but  the  acci- 
dental bonds  of  beings  soon  to  disappear,  and  the  unselfish 
living  for  others  an  "  altruism  "  to  end  in  nought  in  a  few 
days,  then  will  woman  become  but  as  a  weaker  fellow- 
animal,  with  no  especial  respect  encircling  her,  and 
perhaps  will  herself  lose  the  purity  and  sanctity  which 
made  her  under  Christianity  the  object  of  so  much  reve- 
rence. 

Woman,  in  a  society  to  which  immortality  is  a  dream 
and  Christ  a  myth,  would  after  the  course  of  centuries  lose 
the  ideal  position  which  Christianity  had  given  her.  On 
her  would  especially  fall  the  degeneracy  and  melancholy 
of  the  race. 

We  need  not  say,  however,  to  those  who  have  studied 
the  laws  of  human  progress,  that  a  reaction  must  come  to 
any  such  degeneracy,  or  the  race  must  die.  Faith  and 
hope  must  resume  their  power  ;  unselfishness  must  become 
again  the  highest  ideal  of  the  soul ;  Christianity,  or  some 
new  revelation  of  the  unseen,  must  shine  again  after  ages  of 
darkness,  and  as  the  human  race  advances,  woman  must 
retake  the  position  the  Faith  of  Jesus  had  given  her. 

Either  this,  or  an  utter  degeneracy  and  the  final  ruin  of 
mankind. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

DIVORCE. 

Humane  and  moral  progress  is  almost  coincident  with 
the  increasing  sacredness  attached  to  the  marriage-bond. 
That  earliest  of  evolutionists,  Lucretius,  justly  dates  the 
first  true  refinement  ^  of  the  human  race  from  "  chaste 
single  marriage."  We  have  shown  to  what  degree  the 
extraordinary  social  depravity  and  degradation  of  Roman 
society  under  the  emperors  were  due  to  the  looseness 
of  this  tie.  In  the  modern  world,  that  form  of  faith 
which  has  most  neglected  monogamy  and  has  most  clearly 
taught  freedom  of  divorce,  has  been  followed  by  the 
greatest  degradation  of  woman.  The  Mohammedan 
countries  show  what  social  fruits  a  license  in  this  matter 
brings  forth. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  Christ's  view  of  marriage, 
repeated  and  followed  by  the  Apostles  and  the  early  Chris- 
tians. The  Master  regarded  it  as  one  of  the  most  holy  and 
permanent  of  human  relations.  He  evidently  set  a  value 
upon  it  as  upon  no  other  external  relation  or  institution. 
All  other  human  connections  were  to  be  abandoned  for  it  : 
God  Himself  had  formed  it,  and  it  was  only  to  be  broken 
and  a  new  relation  joined  for  the  most  serious  and  profound 
reasons.     The  Apostles,  indeed,   did  not  always  so  fully 

'  Turn  genus  humanum  primum  mollescere  coepit.     {De  Rcr.  Nat., 

Ub.  5.) 

300 


CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  DIVORCE.  301 

appreciate  it ;  yet  they  compared  it  to  the  most  mysterious 
and  earnest  bond  known  to  man — that  uniting  the  soul  to 
its  Redeemer.  All  these,  too,  have  everywhere  taught 
that  the  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that 
any  connection,  other  than  that  of  marriage,  defiles  that 
temple. 

It  is  true  that  the  Church  early  fell  into  an  extreme  of 
asceticism  and  celibacy.  Still  the  distinctive  teachings  of 
Christ  must  be  admitted  to  present  the  highest  possible 
ideal  of  marriage,  and  the  utmost  sense  of  its  sacredness. 
We  are  not,  however,  prepared  to  say  that  the  words  of 
Jesus  are  to  be  followed,  without  admitting  any  possible 
limitation  or  exception.  In  the  few  precepts  quoted  from 
Him,  He  apparently  admits  but  one  ground  of  divorce — 
unfaithfulness;  and  He  forbids  re-marriage  if  the  partners 
are  separated  through  any  other  cause.  Paul  extends  the 
grounds  to  malicious  desertion  by  an  unbelieving  partner, 
^nd  apparently  permits  re-marriage  ;  yet  this  permission 
is  doubted  by  many  commentators. 

It  may  fairly  be  reasoned  in  so  difficult  and  important  a 
-natter,  that  the  Master  included  in  unfaithfulness  anything 
which  openly  and  clearly  perverted  the  ends  of  the  relation  ; 
and  that  Paul,  who  probably  knew  of  teachings  by  Him 
of  which  we  have  not  heard,  inferred  even  a  greater  latitude, 
where  so  great  a  separating  power  as  difference  of  religious 
faith  came  in  between  the  partners. 

As  we  have  stated  before,  the  true  inference  from  these 
early  teachings  is  that  the  utmost  sanctity  is  to  be  attached 
to  marriage,  and  that  divorce  is  only  to  be  permitted  from 
the  most  serious  grounds,  which  affect  the  veiy  existence 
of  the  relation. 

Under  the  Christian  teachings,  men  are  not  lightly  to 
enter  on  marriage  ;  they  are  to  observe  it  loyally  ;  it  is  a 
bond  for  life  and  death  ;  much  is  to  be  endured  for  the 


30J  CESTA    CHRIST!. 

sake  of  sustaining  it,  even  if  it  be  not  in  all  respects 
complete  ;  perfect  faithfulness  and  purity  are  demanded 
from  man  as  from  woman  ;  if  separation  occur  from  light 
cause,  the  partners  are  not  permitted  to  marry  another ; 
and  if  a  final  breaking  of  the  tie  take  place,  it  must  be 
from  very  profound  and  serious  reasons,  such  as  make  the 
marriage  no  true  union  of  body  and  soul.  This  we  believe 
to  be  substantially  the  Christian  doctrine  of  marriage. 

But  as  this  is  the  one  exception  in  which  Christ's  words 
apply  to  institutions  or  outward  acts,  and  not  to  principles, 
we  may  easily  be  mistaken  as  to  the  aj^plication  of  His 
teachings. 

What  has  this  moral  doctrine  accomplished  in  the  world's 
progress  ?  The  words  of  the  Lord  were  first  uttered  amid 
a  community — the  Jewish — where  polygamy  had  been 
tolerated,  and  free  divorce  of  the  wife  by  the  husband 
was  permitted. 

They  were  thrown  as  seeds  into  another  society — the 
Roman — where,  as  we  have  shown,  divorces  were  daily, 
and  the  marriage  relation  had  reached  its  lowest  state  of 
degradation,  and  family  morals  were  corrupt  to  the  last 
degree.  The  struggle  against  free  divorce,  as  we  have 
indicated,  was  a  changing  one  under  the  so-called  Christian 
emperors  of  Rome,  and  throughout  the  ancient  world. 
Even  Justinian  was  obliged  to  issue  a  law,^  which  revoked 
what  he  had  promulgated  against  too  free  divorce.  Still 
everywhere  into  Roman  and  barbaric  society  was  pene- 
trating a  new  conception  of  marriage,  or  at  least  a  respect 
and  reverence  for  it,  and  an  opposition  to  divorce,  such  as 
the  ancient  world  had  never  known.  The  Christian  con- 
ception was  in  harmony  with  the  German,  though  the 
northern  tribes  permitted  polygamy,  and  often  indulged  in 
too  free  divorce.     This  fresh  principle  of  purity  and  respect 

'  Nov.,  14a 


DIVORCE  AND  ROMAN  LAW.  303 

for  marriage,  did  more  than  anything  towards  saving  the 
barbaric  tribes  from  the  degeneracy  which  had  overtaken 
the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Roman  law,  before  Justinian, 
showed  the  effect  of  the  new  Faith,  in  strengthening  this 
bond,  but  not  by  any  means  to  the  degree  which  might 
have  been  hoped  for.  Where  divorce  occurred  on  account 
of  the  guilty  conduct  of  one  of  the  partners,  the  conse- 
quences to  the  guilty  one  in  a  pecuniary  direction  were 
made  more  heavy  than  under  the  old  Roman  law,  and 
occasionally  re-marriage  was  restricted  ;  but  divorce  by 
mutual  consent,  with  liberty  of  re-marriage,  was  finally 
permitted. 

The  drift  of  influence,  as  the  Christian  doctrines  came 
more  and  more  into  power  in  the  Middle  Ages,  was  in 
favour  of  the  permanence  of  marriage.  Yet  this  was 
modified  by  non-Christian  views  which  also  imbued  society 
under  the  influence  of  the  Church.  Celibacy  became  too 
highly  honoured,  and  marriage  was  looked  upon  as  a 
species  of  impurity.  A  vast  deal  of  concealed  vice  and 
concubinage  existed,  especially  among  the  clergy— a 
natural  reaction  against  these  extreme  views.  The  clergy, 
who  were  generally  unmarried,  had  the  framing  of  the 
canon-law  on  marriage,  and  in  consequence  made  it  the 
expression  of  the  extreme  ascetic  doctrine.  Under  their 
influence  marriage  became  a  sacrament,  and  for  scarcely 
any  cause  could  be  broken  ;  while  the  position  of  the 
woman  was  inferior  in  this  relation  to  what  it  had  been 
under  the  purely  Christian  view.  The  general  churchly 
view  of  divorce  in  the  Middle  Ages  is  thus  concisely  stated 
by  Pres.  Woolsey  in  his  excellent  essay :  ^  (i)  That  no 
crime  of  either  partner,  being  Christian,  justified  re-marriage 
to    another    during    the    life   of   the    offender.      (2)    If  an 

'  Essay  on  Divorce.  This  valuable  little  book  is  the  clearest  and 
most  able  monogram  on  divorce,  in  modern  writing. 


304  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

infidel  partner  deserted  a  Christian  the  latter  could  re- 
marry. (3)  Consorts  separated  by  criminal  conduct  could 
unite  u  ith  each  other  again,  but  the  guilty  one  must  do 
penance. 

There  were  conflicting  views  in  regard  to  the  right  of 
re-marriage  after  separation  for  criminal  conduct ;  but  on 
the  whole,  the  prevailing  belief  was  that  this  should  be 
only  a  separation,  not  a  divorce. 

These  extreme  views,  going  far  beyond  the  Christian 
doctrine,  first  discouraging  marriage,  then  making  marriage 
a  very  heavy  burden  which  could  never  be  removed,  pro- 
duced naturally  a  great  reaction.  The  Protestant  Reformers 
expressed  in  their  lives  and  doctrines  this  reaction.  They 
were,  as  might  be  expected,  indignant  at  the  fearful  amount 
of  corruption  and  vice,  natural  and  unnatural,  which  had 
grown  up  under  the  extreme  Roman  Catholic  ideas.  They 
saw  that  the  worst  offence  against  the  marriage-bond  was 
looked  upon  with  indifierence  or  excuse  ;  and  that  where 
this  crime  separated  the  partners,  it  did  not  relieve  the 
innocent  one  ;  ^  she,  perhaps,  being  compelled  to  a  life  of 
solitude  and  penury,  while  her  guilty  partner  continued  his 
round  of  wicked  pleasures,  or  lived  in  open  concubinage  ; 
or,  if  of  weak  nature,  she  was  left  to  temptations  which  she 
could  with  difficulty  resist.  The  Protestant  Reformers 
were  accordingly  in  favour  of  freer  divorce.  There  was  a 
difference  of  view  among  the  Churches,  some  few  holding 
that  the  bond  could  only  be  broken  by  death  or  criminal 
conduct,  but  the  majority  extending  the  causes  of  divorce 
to  malicious  desertion,  and  some  permitting  even  cruel 
treatment  or  the  opinion  of  the  judge  to  determine  a 
lawful  breaking  of  the  tie.^ 

The  modern  tendency  of  opinion  in  Europe,  partly  as 
a  re-action  against  excessive  strictness,  is  unquestionably 
*  Woolsey.  *  Jbid, 


EUROPEAN  TENDENCIES.  305 

towards  freer  separation.  France  has  passed  through  the 
period  of  revolutionary  ideas,  and  under  the  famous  Code 
Civil  has  permitted  great  laxity  in  this  matter,  but  with 
the  fall  of  the  first  Empire,  she  returned  to  the  old  eccle- 
siastical legislation  on  marriage  ;  yet  this  stage  of  opinion 
will  probably  not  endure  long,  and  legislation  will  be  ob- 
tained for  more  ready  divorce.  Much  freedom  of  divorce 
is  given  by  the  Prussian  Code,  yet  certain  obstacles  are 
thrown  in  the  way  of  separation  from  mere  caprice ;  and 
in  case  of  criminal  conduct,  provision  is  made  to  compel 
the  guilty  partner  to  make  compensation  for  the  benefi*" 
of  the  children  of  the  innocent  partner.^ 

The  Austrian  Code  is  very  lax  in  its  restrictions  on 
divorce  towards  non-Catholics,  though  retaining  the  ecclesi- 
astical laws  for  Catholics.  In  Switzerland  there  is  also 
very  considerable  freedom  of  divorce.  In  England  the 
legislation  is  much  stricter  than  in  other  Protestant 
countries.  Separation  from  "  bed  and  board  "  is  permitted 
for  injuries  and  cruel  treatment,  for  desertion  during  two 
years,  or  for  criminal  conduct.  Divorce  is  allowed  for 
the  adultery  of  the  wife,  and  for  "  incestuous  adultery,"  or 
bigamy,  with  other  similar  offences  of  the  husband.  Both 
parties  can  remarry  at  once  after  divorce  ;  and  the  guilty 
member  be  united  with  the  partner  in  crime.  The  courts 
are  permitted  to  settle  the  guilty  wife's  property  on  the 
husband  and  children. 

United  States  Law. — The  views  expressed  by  courts  and 
jurists  in  the  United  States  in  regard  to  marriage,  bear 
evidently  the  stamp  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  but  it  cannot 
be  said  that  American  legislation  has  been  at  all  in  har- 
mony with  it.     Thus  Chief  Justice  Robertson  ^  says, 

*  Woolsey,  p.  147. 

^  Logan  V.  Logan.     Quoted  by  Co7d,  sect.  936. 


3o6  GESTA    CHRIS TI. 

"  Marriage  being  more  fundamental  and  important  than  any  of  the 
social  relations,  is  controlled  as  to  its  obligation  by  a  peculiar  policy, 
deemed  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole  community.  Being  a 
contract  for  life,  indissoluble  by  the  consent  of  the  parties  merely,  it 
should  not  be  dissolved  by  the  sovereign  will  for  any  other  causes 
than  such  as  are  subversive  of  its  essential  ends,  or  inconsistent  with 
the  general  welfare.  And  it  is  certainly  important  to  the  general 
stability  and  harmony  of  that  relation,  that  the  parties  should  know 
that  having  taken  each  other  with  all  their  infirmities  and  vowed 
reciprocal  fidelity  and  forbearance  for  life,  it  is  their  interest  as  well  as 
their  duty  to  bear  and  forlaear,  as  far  as  the  resources  of  love,  philoso- 
phy and  religion  can  enable  them." 

And  again, 

"The  institution  of  marriage,  commencing  with  the  race  and  at- 
tending man  in  all  periods,  and  in  all  countries,  has  ever  been  con- 
sidered the  particular  glory  of  the  social  system.  It  has  shone  forth 
in  dark  countries  and  in  dark  periods  of  the  world,  a  bright  luminary 
on  his  horizon.  And  but  for  this  institution,  all  that  is  valuable, 
all  that  is  virtuous,  all  that  is  desirable  in  human  existence,  would 
long  since  have  faded  away  in  the  general  retrogression  of  the  race, 
and  in  the  perilous  darkness  in  which  its  jOys  and  its  hopes  would 
have  been  wrecked  together.' 

A  careful  writer  on  the  "  Domestic  Relations,"  Schouler, 
says, 

"When  parties  united  in  the  solemn  responsibility  of  marriage,  can 
coolly  discuss  and  arrange  the  preUminaries  of  final  dissolution,  and 
haste  to  obtain  judicial  relief  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  new  union, 
as  is  sometimes  done  in  our  land,  they  are  hardly  fitted  to  discharge 
nature's  highest  obligations  to  one  another  ;  certainly  they  cannot  do 
justice  to  their  children  nor  to  society.  Thus  may  marriage  lose  half 
its  significance  by  parting  with  all  its  sanctity."  ^ 

Judge  Story  says, 

"It  (marriage)  appears  to  me  sometimes  more  than  a  mere  contract. 
It  is  rather  to  be  deemed  an  institution  of  society,  iounded  upon  the 


*  Bishop,     On  Divorce,  p.  13. 

•  Schouler.     On  the  Domestic  Relations,  p.  302. 


AMERICAN  LEGISLATION.  yyj 

conseat  and  contract  of  the  parties,  and  in  this  view  it  has  some 
pecuharities  in  its  nature,  character,  operation,  and  extent  of  obhga- 
tion,  different  from  what  belongs  to  ordinary  contracts."  ^ 

In  a  work  of  this  nature,  it  is  not  necessary  to  give  a 
detailed  sketch  of  the  legislation  on  divorce  in  the  different 
American  States.  In  what  we  have  to  say,  we  follow 
mainly  Prest.  Woolsey's  admirably  clear  resume.  The  State 
where  the  marriage  law  was  most  strict  before  the  civil 
war,  was  South  Carolina,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  no  case 
of  divorce  ever  came  before  the  courts,  and  no  divorce  was 
ever  granted  by  the  legislature,  nor  was  ever  even  a  legal 
separation  granted  by  law.  In  New  York  State,  the  law 
greatly  resembles  the  English  legislation  :  divorce  is  per- 
mitted for  adultery,  and  separation  for  specific  acts,  the 
great  differences  being  that  if  one  of  the  partners  is  found 
guilty  of  adultery,  a  re-marriage  is  not  permitted  during 
the  lifetime  of  the  innocent  member,  and  that  husband  and 
wife  are  put  on  precisely  the  same  footing  as  to  criminal 
conduct  as  a  ground  of  divorce. 

The  majority  of  the  States,  however,  permit  divorce 
for  a  great  variety  of  causes,  and  present  a  looseness  of 
procedure  which  has  increased  the  facility  for  a  legal 
separation  on  trivial  grounds  to  an  alarming  extent.  In 
most  of  the  States,  adultery,  malicious  desertion  under 
various  conditions,  imprisonment  for  crime,  neglect  to 
provide  for  a  wife's  maintenance,  cruelty  and  habitual 
drunkenness,  are  held  as  grounds  of  divorce,  and  in  a 
few  the  membership  of  a  religious  society  which  regards 
marriage  to  be  unlawful.  But  beyond  these,  in  certain 
States  "  divorce  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  court ;  and 

*  Confi.  of  Laws,  io8, 

'  Maine,  North  Carolina,  Iowa,  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut, 
{Woolsey,  pp.  204,  205.) 


308  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

in  Connecticut  a  statute  allows  divorce  for  "  any  such 
misconduct  as  permanently  destroys  the  happiness  of  the 
petitioner,  and  defeats  the  purpose  of  the  conjugal  i ela- 
tion." This  particular  clause  in  the  statute  was  repealed 
in  1878,  with  very  good  results  in  the  following  year,  there 
being  316  divorces  against  401  of  the  previous  year.  The 
effects,  however,  since  that  date  have  not  been  remark- 
able. 

It  is  in  the  above  State,  and  Indiana,  that  divorce  laws 
have  been  most  loose.  A  year's  residence  in  the  latter 
qualified  a  person  to  petition  for  divorce  ;  the  case  could 
be  tried  thirty  days  after  notices  had  been  published  in 
a  newspaper  of  the  county  ;  the  defendant  was  often 
ignorant  of  the  proceedings,  and  both  parties  were  freed 
by  the  divorce  from  the  marriage  contract. 

The  liberty  of  re-marriage  varies  exceedingly  in  the 
different  States,  the  greater  number  however  putting  no 
restriction  on  the  union  of  divorced  persons. 

The  result  of  this  license  of  divorce  in  the  average 
number  of  divorces  to  the  marriages  is  an  instructive  fact. 
Thus  from  i860  to  1867,  in  Vermont,  out  of  15,710 
marriages  there  were  730  divorces,  or  i  to  2r5  ;  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, from  1 861  to  1866,  I  to  44"4  ;  in  Ohio,  from 
1865  to  1866,  I  to  26 ;  and  in  Connecticut,  from  i860 
to  1867,  I  to  1 1 '40;  and  in  1864,  there  was  one  divorce 
in  that  State  to  nearly  every  ten  marriages.  ^  We  have 
not  the  figures  for  Indiana.  In  Prussia,  the  ratio  for 
non-Catholics  in  1855  was  i  to  29;  in  Belgium  in  1874, 
I  to  272;  in  France,  from  1871  to  1874,  i  to  152.^ 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  brief  sketch,  that  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  divorce,  as  we  understand  it,  has  seldom  in  the 
world's  history  been  accepted  in  its  pure  form.     Christi- 


'   Woolscy,  pp.  221,  222. 
Naquet,  Le  Divorce. 


LICENSE  IN  DIVORCE.  309 

aflity  has  strenL,^thened  marriage  in  every  age.  But  on 
one  side,  has  been  too  much  asceticism,  or  too  much 
strictness  with  the  marriage-tie,  and  on  the  other,  too  much 
looseness  of  the  bond. 

The  present  drift  is  the  opposite  to  that  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  towards  an  excessive  Hcense  in  divorce.  There 
can  be  httle  question  that  the  extreme  difficulties  thrown 
about  separation,  such  as  the  English  law  presents,  or 
such  as  have  been  offered  in  South  Carolina,  have  been 
unwholesome.  They  bring  about  great  hardships  and 
injustices  in  the  marriage  relation,  and  tempt  to  con- 
cubinage. The  latter  is  said  to  have  been  very  common  in 
South  Carolina  under  the  old  law  ^  English  society  among 
the  higher  classes  is  reported  as  much  more  contaminated 
with  this  relation  than  is  American  society  under  freer 
divorce  laws.  Catholic  countries  under  the  strict  canon 
law  do  not  present  certainly  nearly  so  happy  a  condition 
in  regard  to  marriage,  as  do  Protestant  countries,  where 
much  latitude  is  allowed. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  conviction  is  growing  among 
the  most  thoughtful  persons  in  the  United  States,  that  if 
a  license  in  divorce  increases,  such  as  has  been  allowed  in 
a  few  of  the  States,  the  utmost  peril  threatens  the  most 
important  interests  of  society.  There  is  danger  of  marriage 
losing  all  its  sacredness  ;  of  its  being  taken  up  and  dropped 
like  concubinage,  and  the  children  of  these  unhappy  con- 
nections floating  about,  uncared  for,  on  the  currents  of 
society.  There  is  nothing  as  yet  in  American  society  of 
the  old  Roman  license  of  morals  in  reijard  to  marriaue 
and  divorce,  and  there  could  not  be  where  Christianity 
had  the  faintest  influence  ;  but  there  are  dangers  ominous 
for  this  relation  which  are  arousing  general  anxiety. 
Public  opinion  in  surh  States  as  Indiana  and  Connecticut, 
^  See  Bishop,  On  Divorce, 


3TO  CESTA    CHRISTI. 

is  strongly  running  towards  greater  strictness,  and  some 
changes  in  legislation  have  been  made  in  this  direction. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  modern  instance  of  the  efifect 
of  utter  freedom  of  divorce,  and  liberty  of  re-marriage,  is 
given  in  the  habits  and  life  of  the  foreign  poor  in  a  city 
like  New  York.  Here  the  Irish  or  German  peasant,  being 
removed  from  the  restraints  of  home  and  priesthood,  ap- 
plies to  his  "  civil  contract "  a  freedom  of  action  which  he 
would  not  use  in  any  other  contract  As  the  wife  grows 
older  and  less  attractive,  she  is  thrown  aside  for  some  more 
pleasing  companion  ;  the  husband  migrates  to  distant 
parts  of  the  country  and  disappears,  and  the  unhappy 
woman  and  children  are  left  on  the  world  to  struggle  as 
they  best  may.  Or  again,  the  wife  abandons  the  husband, 
and  he  is  compelled  to  leave  the  children  in  neglect ;  or 
marrying  again,  to  place  them  under  that  relation,  often 
so  cruel  among  the  poor,  of  the  step-mother.  It  is  not 
strange  that  one  of  the  prolific  causes  of  the  extraordinary 
crime  and  misery  among  children  in  New  York  is  the 
looseness  of  the  marriage  tie.^ 

Of  course,  in  a  more  cultivated  class,  many  causes 
will  soften  the  effects  of  free  divorce.  But  in  the  long 
course  of  years,  the  influence  upon  family  life  and  the 
future  of  children,  of  weakening  the  marriage  bond,  even 
among  persons  of  education,  will  be  parallel  to  what  we 
see  of  its  effects  on  the  poor  in  American  cities.  When 
among  modern  races  marriage  is  even  less  than  a  civil 
contract,  to  be  broken  not  merely  by  "  mutual  consent," 
but  by  the  whim  or  fancy  of  either  party,  when  it  can  be 
assumed  and  abandoned  as  easily  as  any  relation  of  feel- 
ing or  imagination,  then  will  the  sacredness  have  departed 
from  many  of  our  homes.     Human  selfishness  and  passion 

'  See  The  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York,  p.  41.     By  the  Author, 


FUTURE  EFFECTS  OF  FREE  DIVORCE.  311 

will  take  the  place  of  duty.  Children  will  be  left  to  un- 
certain guidance ;  the  greatest  security  in  modern  life 
undermined,  and  one  of  our  purest  wells  of  happiness 
defiled.  When  this  shall  have  occurred  in  the  modern 
world  a  physical  degeneracy  will  commence  which  will  be 
contemporaneous  with  the  moral,  and  such  races  will  lose 
power  and  virtue,  until,  as  in  the  Roman  empire,  more 
vigorous  peoples  take  their  places. 

It  is  true  that  under  a  theory  of  free  divorce  a  very 
happy  marriage  in  favourable  circumstances  may  occur. 
But  so  a  happy  concubinage  is  sometimes  known.  The 
question  is,  How  will  society  generally  tend  if  there  is 
unlimited  license  of  separation  and  re-marriage?  Human 
selfishness  and  masculine  caprice  and  passion  seem  best 
cured  by  throwing  a  peculiar  sacredness  and  earnestness 
about  marriage,  so  that  it  be  not  lightly  entered  upon,  and 
be  loyally  carried  through.  The  home  must  be  made 
secure  and  stable  ;  children  must  not  be  left  to  uncertain 
care ;  and  each  partner  must  feel  constrained  to  govern 
fancy  or  selfishness  with  a  view  to  the  loyalty  of  the 
relation. 

Notwithstanding  the  facts  we  have  mentioned,  on  the 
whole,  especially  in  the  Middle  States,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  marriage  condition  is  happier  and  more  often  founded 
on  affection,  and  that  concubinage  is  less  known  there 
than  anywhere  else  in  the  civilized  world.  Woman  nearly 
occupies,  in  America,  the  position  which  Christianity 
seems  to  assign  her — of  the  moral  leader  and  inspirer 
of  society  and  the  equal  of  man  in  personal  rights,  with 
the  liberty  of  nearly  all  possible  development  of  her 
capacities. 

In  a  State  like  New  York  the  strictness  of  the  English 
law  is  tempered  by  the  freedom  easily  enjoyed  by  dis- 
satisfied partners  in  other  States.     Marriage,  among  the 


3ia  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

intelligent  classes,  is  highly  reverenced,  and  not  easily 
broken.  Only  grave  causes  are  usually  held  in  society 
to  justify  divorce,  and  yet  there  is  no  absolute  yoke  in 
the  relation.  The  conscious  freedom  enjoyed,  and  the 
sacredness  attached  to  the  bond,  have  combined  under 
New  York  law  to  make  marriages  unusually  stable  and 
often  peculiarly  happy.  There  is  still  too  much  license 
of  divorce,  owing  to  the  legislation  of  other  States  ;  and 
the  partner  who  has  separated  for  trivial  causes  often 
takes  the  liberty  of  re-marriage  to  another  too  readily. 
The  Christian  ideal  (if  we  understand  it  correctly)  is  not 
yet  reached  ;   yet  it  is  approached. 

As  society  everywhere  advances  in  morality  and  refine- 
ment and  intelligence,  it  will  more  and  more  draw  near 
the  model  which  Christ  and  His  apostles  have  sketched  of 
marriage,  to  the  casta  convcubia  of  which  Lucretius  speaks. 
Equal  chastity  will  be  expected  from  man  and  woman  ; 
the  body  will  be  as  "  the  temple  of  God  "  ;  two  natures 
v/ill  tend  to  be  one  in  a  relation  formed  by  the  Creator 
and  esteemed  beyond  all  other  relations, — a  bond  only 
to  be  broken  for  extreme  causes,  so  sacred  that,  if  dis- 
solved for  light  reasons,  it  is  still  in  conscience  held 
binding. 

Legislation,  as  it  advances,  will  tend  in  this  direction  to 
solidify  and  firmly  establish  marriage,  to  make  quick  di- 
vorces difficult,  to  throw  the  burden  and  penalty  of  the  vio- 
lation of  the  bond  on  the  guilty  one,  to  protect  the  children, 
and  to  give  the  dissatisfied  or  disagreeing  partners  time  and 
opportunity  for  reconciliation  ;  and  yet  it  will  not  force  an 
unfortunate  woman  or  man,  bound  to  a  brutal  or  unfaithful 
partner,  for  ever  to  be  in  bondage  to  a  relation  which  has 
no  foundation  of  affection  or  respect.  The  laws  of  the 
future,  like  the  Christian  doctrine  of  marriage,  will  draw  a 
via  media  between  the  strictness  of  the  Catholic  canon-law 


CONCUBINAGE.  313 

and  the  license  of  Protestant  practice  and  law  in  regard 
to  marriage  and  divorce. 

In  regard  to  concubinage,  Christianity  works  everywhere 
to  extirpate  it.  It  has  continually  tended  through  all 
modern  history  to  do  away  with  illicit  connections  between 
the  sexes.  In  this  matter  the  Church,  at  certain  periods 
of  its  history,  has  been  fearfully  inconsistent  with  the 
teachings  of  the  Master.  At  present,  however,  it  leads 
the  morality  of  the  world  on  this  subject.  To  the  Faith 
preached  in  Galilee,  Roman  law  owed  its  first  tinge  of 
humanity  in  regard  to  the  children  of  these  unfortunate 
connections.  As  we  have  shown  in  an  earlier  chapter, 
Constantine,  under  the  influence  of  the  new  ideas  in  the 
world,  legitimated  illegitimate  children  per  subsequens  ma- 
trinio7iiuni,  by  a  subsequent  marriage,  his  object  being,  as 
the  code  states,  to  break  up  this  permitted  habit  of  semi- 
matrimony.^  Justinian  continued  and  confirmed  this 
humane  legislation  ;  and,  under  the  Popes,  it  was  preserved 
by  two  rescripts  of  Pope  Alexander,  in  the  Decretals  ^  of 
Gregory  (i  172  A.D.  and  11 80).  This  legislation  was  imi- 
tated in  Scotland  and  in  most  of  Central  Europe.  Similar 
provisions  protecting  the  unhappy  children  of  unlawful  con- 
nections, have  been  engrafted  in  the  legislation  of  most  of 
the  States  of  the  American  Union,  and  in  some  States  even 
a  formal  declaration  of  the  father,^  affirming  a  subsequent 
marriage,  is  sufficient  to  legitimate  the  children,  if  it  be 
filed  in  court  and  recorded. 

Humane  progress  in  the  matter  of  divorce  and  con- 
cubinage has  been  more  influenced  by  the  teachings  of 
Galilee  than  by  any  other  one  cause  in  history.  Yet  it  is 
evident  that  civilized    society  has  not  at   all   in   general 

•  Licita  consuetudo  semi-matrimonii.    {Cod.  Lib.  6,  tit.  57.) 

•  Dec,  iv.  17,  I, 

•  Schouler, 


314  CESTA    CHRISTI. 

reached  the  ideal  of  purity  and  of  marriage  presented  by 
the  great  Teacher.  As  mankind  becomes  better  and 
happier  it  continually  approaches  that  ideal ;  and  the 
perfection  of  humanity  will  be  almost  attained  when  the 
Christian  conception  of  marriage  is  realized  by  man  and 
by  woman. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

DEGRADATION   OF   WOMAN. 

It  would  seem  at  first  thought  that  one  terrible  social  evil 
existed  which  Christianity  had  not  only  not  mitigated,  but 
scarcely  even  touched — the  prostitution  of  women.  The 
class  of  human  beings  who  live  by  selling  that  which  is 
above  all  price  is  still  the  most  hopeless  and  irredeemable 
under  modern  civilization.  Christ  Himself  had  evidently 
felt  a  profound  compassion  for  these  unfortunate  and  guilty 
persons  ;  and  this  example  in  all  ages  has  led  His  followers 
to  special  efforts  to  improve  and  save  these  victims  of 
their  own  folly  and  poverty  and  man's  passions.  But  as 
society  has  become  more  and  more  permeated  with  the 
Christian  sentiment  and  sense  of  obligation  of  purity, 
these  persons,  who  persistently  and  openly  violated  it, 
have  become  more  and  more  sunken  by  contrast.  Their 
own  sense  of  degradation  is  the  measure  of  the  prevailing 
standard  of  society.  When  the  Greek  wives  and  maidens 
were  as  they  were  in  the  time  of  Socrates,  the  lietairae 
might  well  be  the  leaders  of  society.  And  when  Roman 
married  life  had  reached  the  low  stage  of  the  period  of 
the  early  empire,  legislation  to  prevent  high-born  matrons 
from  becoming  prostitutes  would  be  natural.^  One  of  tne 
safeguards  of  modern  society  is  in  the  perhaps  exaggerated 
sentiment  of  contempt  and  condemnation  against  those  who 

*  Tacttus  (Ann.  2.  83). 
3»* 


3i6  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

are  lewd  for  hire.  But  this  protection  around  the  virtuous 
seems  to  still  more  shut  out  the  vicious  from  the  sacred 
circle  of  purity.  Society  generally  is  purified,  marriage  is 
more  sacred,  woman  is  in  a  higher  position  of  respect  and 
influence,  but  the  class  of  female  offenders  against  sexual 
virtue  is  even  lower  than  in  antiquity. 

But  even  with  this  class  some  great  steps  in  advance 
have  been  made.  There  are  no  longer  those,  except  in 
non-Christian  lands,  who  sacrifice  virtue  and  purity  as  an 
offering  to  base  ideals  of  superstition,  and  become  prosti- 
tutes at  the  shrine  of  a  deity.  There  are  no  longer  large 
classes  of  persons,  like  those  under  the  Roman  Empire, 
who  as  slaves  held  their  virtue  at  the  will  of  another,  or 
were  compelled  as  libidinous  actors  to  live  for  the  lusts  of 
men.  Neither  religion  nor  law  nor  social  custom  compels 
the  "  lost  women  "  to  remain  as  they  are.  They  have  no 
unchangeable  profession  any  further  than  their  own  weak- 
ness of  will  fixes  it.  They  are  the  victims  of  their  own 
idleness  or  folly  or  bad  habits. 

On  the  other  hand,  all  the  best  influences  of  society  arc 
seeking  to  reclaim  them  and  to  diminish  this  source  of  so 
many  calamities.  Christianity  has,  as  it  were,  only  begun 
its  century-long  struggle  with  this  tremendous  social  evil. 
If  the  student  reads  carefully  Plato's  Laws,^  he  will  find 
there  a  curious  passage,  already  partially  quoted  in  this 
work,  where  the  philosopher  of  love  regards  the  terrible 
unnatural  lusts  of  men  in  Greece  at  that  day  with  some- 
what of  the  hopelessness  that  a  fervent  Christian  philo- 
sopher of  this  century  might  feel  in  regard  to  this  vice 
among  women. 

Plato  believes  that  certain  great  moral  forces  or  ideals 
will,  in  a  far  distant  future,  purify  society  of  these  morbid 
passions  \   but  to  him   this  result  is  as  far  away  as,   for 

*  JSIomoi,  ix. 


REFORM  BEGUN.  317 

instance,  universal  peace  is  now  to  the  Christian.  The 
modern  student  has  seen  society  almost  cleansed  of  these 
imiDurities,  under  the  influence  of  the  new  ideal  before  the 
world.  So,  after  many  ages,  it  will  be  under  Christianity 
with  woman's  vice  and  impurity. 

The  first  great  step  has  been  made  under  the  new  Faith. 
Woman's  fall  could  not  happen  without  man's  temptation. 
The  duty  of  masculine  purity  (though  only  partially  recog- 
nized by  Christians)  is  most  clearly  taught  by  Christ.  As 
we  have  said  before,  He  was  not  alone  in  preaching  this 
doctrine.  The  stoical  moralists  had  taught  it.  But  in 
every  form  He  and  His  apostles  seek  to  impress  this  obli- 
gation on  the  human  conscience.  A  certain  number  of 
His  followers  in  every  age  are  so  inspired  by  His  spirit, 
that  they  endeavour  "  to  become  pure  even  as  He  is  pure." 
This  number  will  continually  increase,  and  their  opinion 
and  practice  will  more  and  more  influence  society.  As 
man  becomes  pure  one  great  source  of  temptation  will 
be  diminished  to  women  who  are  idle  or  frivolous  or  des- 
perate. When  the  conviction  spreads  through  every  com- 
munity, that  in  this  offence,  man  sins  with  the  woman  ; 
and,  though  the  moral  evil  be  not  to  him  as  to  her,  yet 
that  he,  as  she,  holds  a  temple  sacred  to  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  equally  with  her  has  soiled  and  profaned  it  ;  and  that 
he,  as  she,  has  separated  himself  from  his  ideal  and  Lord, 
and  must  answer  in  his  own  soul,  not  only  for  the  injury 
he  has  brought  upon  himself,  but  for  that  ruin  he  has 
aided  to  bring  upon  another, — then  will  an  enormous  dyke 
as  it  were  be  formed  against  the  spread  of  prostitution. 

Another  great  power  restraining  its  increase  will  be 
the  Christian  and  moral  influences  which  are  now  thrown 
more  and  more  around  the  childhood  of  the  working  and 
poorer  classes.  Public  women  of  this  kind  are  not  gene- 
tally,  as  is  supposed,  the  victims  of  deception  and  wrong 


3i8  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

by  men.  They  are  usually  poor  girls  who  have  grown  up 
without  good  influences,  and  not  in  habits  of  regular  work 
or  industry  ;  they  fall  early  into  ways  of  idleness,  among 
bad  company,  and  are  ready  to  earn  pleasures  and  luxu- 
ries by  unnatural  means.  It  is  this  great  class  of  untaught 
and  neglected  poor  children  who  mainly  supply  the  class 
of  prostitutes.  Of  course  there  are  other  elements,  but 
these  form  the  immense  majority.  Now  to  this  class, 
Christianity,  under  modern  methods,  offers  at  once  its 
peculiar  influences.  It  holds  before  these  children  a 
sublime  ideal  of  purity ;  it  teaches  each  one  her  immense 
value  in  the  universe ;  it  trains  the  little  ones  to  habits 
of  industry  and  daily  work  ;  it  inculcates  purity  of  per- 
son and  heart,  and  prepares  each  character  for  the  tough 
struggle  of  life,  and  takes  the  child  almost  out  of  the  class 
of  persons  who  are  exposed  to  this  great  vice. 

A  remarkable  instance  is  given  of  the  effect  of  such 
influences  on  many  thousands  of  very  poor  children,  during 
a  space  of  twenty-five  years,  in  the  charitable  work  of  an 
association — the  Children's  Aid  Society  in  New  York.^ 
From  the  careful  reports  of  this  charity,  it  appears  that 
but  very  few  children  among  the  many  thousands  who  go 
forth  from  the  industrial  schools  of  this  society,  ever  fall 
into  criminal  courses,  but  become  honest  and  industrious 
working  women. 

Now  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  such  influences  could 
be  vastly  extended,  and  everywhere  the  children  of  the 
poor  brought  under  this  moral  discipline  and  training, 
so  that  one  great  source  of  this  evil  should  be  much 
dried  up. 

Then,  as  Christianity  prevails  in  the  world,  marriage 
will  be  held  in  higher  and  higher  esteem,  and  all  irregular 
connections  be  discouraged,  and  legislation  which  inter- 
*  See  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York,  by  the  Author 


EFFECTS  OF  RELIGION.  319 

feres  with  early  marriage  be  discountenanced.  Moreover, 
the  morality  of  the  Gospel  works  against  selfish  display, 
luxury  and  extravagance,  which  now  under  modern  habits 
so  much  prevent  marriage.  Where  self-control,  sobriety 
and  economy  are  the  rule,  there  early  and  natural  con- 
nections between  the  sexes  will  be  more  the  custom.  To 
the  young  man,  next  to  religion,  the  strongest  safeguard 
against  vice  is  a  chivalric  ideal  of  woman,  and  certainly 
the  influence  of  this  faith  has  always  been  to  give  her  this 
exalted  position. 

The  specific  Christian  influences  will  be  more  and  more 
to  exalt  marriage,  to  make  it  the  perfect  example  of  all  hu- 
man relations,  to  lead  the  young  to  sacrifice  self-indulgence 
for  it,  and  above  all,  to  present  an  ideal  of  purity,  for 
both  man  and  woman,  in  the  life  and  teachings  of  the 
great  Founder  of  the  Faith,  which  will  raise  both  sexes 
above  the  reach  of  unlawful  passions  or  unnatural  indul- 
gences. This  will  not  be  as  in  the  past  an  ideal  of 
an  unnatural  and  impossible  asceticism,  but  simply  of 
purity  and  self-control.  It  is  entirely  possible  that  all 
society  may  become  as  a  few,  inspired  with  this  religion, 
are  now.  We  cannot  bay  that  Christianity  has  as  yet 
made  any  vast  change  in  regard  to  this  vice.  But  we  can 
say  that  it  has  begun  changes.  We  can  see  that  it 
has  purified  society,  that  it  is  redeeming  many  thousands 
of  youth  from  this  evil,  and  that  it  has  implanted  a  power 
of  resistance  and  a  sense  of  purity  almost  unknown  before. 
We  see  clearly  that  it  only  needs  time  to  perfect  its  work- 
ings and  to  greatly  diminish  if  not  extirpate,  one  of  tile 
monster  evils  of  liumanity 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

INTERNATIONAL  LAW.— ARBITRATION. 

There  is  evidently  one  field  in  which  the  great  moral 
forces  of  history  have  had  little  effect,  and  where  Chris- 
tianity itself  at  first  sight  seems  a  failure ;  we  mean  the 
public  relations  between  nations.  War  still  remains  the 
most  fearful  curse  upon  mankind ;  it  still  desolates  thou- 
sands of  homes,  making  innumerable  orphans  and  widows, 
destroying  in  a  day  the  results  of  long  and  patient  labour, 
and  laying  up  in  taxation  and  the  support  of  armies  im- 
mense burdens  upon  the  labouring  classes.  Nations  are 
in  the  same  relations  to  one  another  in  regard  to  questions 
of  right  or  property  in  which  the  barons  of  the  fourteenth 
century  were  to  each  other.  As  then  a  dispute  throughout 
Europe  upon  the  title  to  real  estate  was  settled  by  duel, 
and  as  private  gentlemen  and  individual  cities  in  any 
difference  with  their  neighbours  resorted  at  once  to 
"private  war,"  declared  under  due  formalities,  so  now 
between  peoples,  disputes  in  regard  to  territory  or  on 
questions  of  right  and  honour  are  supposed  to  have  but 
one  court  of  decision — the  arbitrament  of  armies.  Leaving 
out  of  view  the  wars  where  great  principles  are  involved, 
like  the  war  for  the  independence  of  Hungary,  the  Franco- 
Austrian  struggle  for  the  freedom  of  Italy,  the  American 
Civil  War  and  others,  there  are  still  numerous  either  use- 
less or  unjust  contests,  such  as  those  of  the  United  States 

aas 


EXPENSE   OF   WAR.  321 

with  the  Indian  tribes,  of  Great  Britain  with  inferior  races 
like  the  Chinese,  Zuhis,  and  Afghans,  sufficient  to  phow 
that  Christianity  has  barely  touched  international  relations 
among  the  most  highly  civilized  communities.  It  is  esti- 
mated by  De  Card  that  recent  wars  alone  in  Europe  have 
cost  the  people  fifty  milliards  (50,000,000,000)  of  franca 
The  present  peace  establishment  of  Europe  embraces  over 
2,000,000  men,  with  a  liability  of  4,000,000  more  to  be 
called  out,  and  a  constant  expense  to  the  people  of 
i^6oo,000,000  per  annum.  Every  country  of  Continental 
Europe  is  eaten  up  by  the  taxation  necessary  on  account 
of  the  hostile  position  of  peoples  who  have  substantially 
the  same  interests. 

To  the  Christian  Church,  international  law,  or  the  cus- 
toms and  rules  of  conduct  between  nations,  owes  little  ; 
but  to  the  moral  and  religious  principles  with  which 
Christianity  has  been  slowly  impregnating  mankind,  it 
has  a  deep  obligation  and  will  be  more  and  more  indebted. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  international  law,  as  a  body, 
is  a  creation  of  the  times  since  Christianity  was  a  living 
force  in  public  affairs.  It  is  true  that  many  of  its  rules 
and  principles  are  derived  from  the  Roman  law,  but  the 
modern  spirit  which  has  especially  characterized  it  since 
Grotius  will  be  seen  to  be  essentially  influenced  by  the 
new  Faith. 

Among  ancient  peoples,  the  Greeks  appear  to  have 
had  no  body  of  international  law  which  they  recognised 
as  binding  them  to  other  nations.  The  stranger  to 
them  was  an  enemy  and  a  "barbarian."  There  were 
indeed  customs  often  acknowledged  between  their  own 
different  tribes  and  States  which  rested  on  principles  of 
justice  and  humanity.  But  even  among  themselves  such 
actions  were  permitted,  as  the  slaughter  of  prisoners  in 
cold  blood,  the  execution  of  generals  after  misfortune  in 

Y 


322  GESTA    CHRISTI 

war,  the  infliction  of  perpetual  slavery  on  captives,  the 
absolute  annihilation  of  hostile  cities,  the  violation  of 
women  and  murder  of  children  after  victory,  the  useless 
punishment  of  hostages  and  violence  to  ambassadors,  and 
bloody  personal  revenge  on  enemies,^  and  similar  bar- 
barisms. 

The  Romans  possessed  the  germs  of  international  law 
in  their  "Fecial  rules"  {jura Jccialia)  or  religious  customs, 
recognized  by  the  various  Italian  states  in  their  early 
history,  in  regard  to  declaring  war  and  other  duties  be- 
tween States.  It  was  something  that  a  band  of  priests 
could  restrain  warriors  and  that  war  could  not  be  made 
without  legal  forms.  The  Roman  Jus  Gentium  arose 
later,  and  was  not  the  law  of  nations  in  the  modern  sense, 
nor  does  it  appear  that  the  Romans  believed  in  a  code  or 
collection  of  customs  and  laws  between  nations  which 
would,  for  instance,  restrain  Rome  itself  if  it  were  not 
Roman  law.  No  members  of  a  foreign  and  independent 
nation  not  in  alliance  with  Rome  had  any  rights  which 
the  Roman  tribunals  could  enforce.  Even  Justinian's 
code,  in  a  well  known  passage,-  asserted  that  a  people 
not  in  alliance  with  Rome  could  keep  what  it  could  take 
from  the  Romans,  and  that  the  latter  had  an  equal  right 
towards  the  other.  In  other  words,  the  natural  relation  of 
nations  to  one  another  was  that  of  hostility. 

The  Jus  Gentium  was  gradually  extracted  from  the  codes 
and  customs  of  the  several  provinces  and  from  the  Roman 
law,  being  the  common  element  in  both,  or  that  part  which 
rested  on  principles  of  equity  or  fairness.  It  was  naturally 
a  more  liberal  code  than  the  civil  law,  and  finally  entered 
into  ar.d  partly  absorbed   Roman   law  itself.     As  Cicero 


'  Ward,  Laws  of  Nations,  vol.  i.  p.  178. 
*  Dig.,  Lib.  xlix.  15,  3. 


INTERNATIONAL  LAW  IN  ROME.  323 

says,  "  the  civil  law  was  not  always  the  law  of  nations,  but 
the  law  of  nations  must  always  be  the  civil  law."  ^ 

The  Stoical  jurists,  and  after  them  the  codifiers  of  Justi- 
nian's code,  assumed  that  this  common  element  in  the  law 
of  nations  was  \.\v&jus  tiaturale,  or  natural  law,  so  that  the 
definition  of  the  law  of  nations  by  Gaius'  and  Justinian's 
code  would  not  be  a  bad  statement  now.  "  What  natural 
reason  has  determined  among  all  men,  that  among  all  is 
constituted  and  called  the  law  of  nations."  ^  But  in  practice 
the  Romans  scarcely  recognised  any  law  of  nations  binding 
great  and  weak  powers,  Rome  and  the  barbarians.  There 
is  but  little  trace  in  their  writings  or  public  action  of  a 
belief  in  a  code  of  rules  and  customs  obligatory  on  the 
mutual  conduct  of  Rome  and  independent  nations. 

"Against  a  public  enemy  there  is  always  authority,"^ 
was  an  ancient  maxim.  "  Whatever  I  have  done  in  regard 
to  enemies  of  the  State,  the  law  of  war  defends,"  *  is  an 
axiom  of  the  Roman  general,  according  to  Livy.  Cicero,^ 
indeed,  in  a  very  eloquent  passage  describes  a  universal 
law,  for  all  times  and  nations,  one  and'  eternal,  governing 
all  ;  but  his  grand  rhetoric  did  not  picture  anything  which 
existed,  or  was  likely  to  exist,  in  the  Roman  world. 

Ward  {Laws  of  Nations)  says  very  justly  that  the  theory 
of  the  classic  nations  in  regard  to  international  relations 

1  .  ,  .  quod  civile,  non  idem  continuo  gentium  ;  quod  autem 
gentium  idem  civile  esse  debet.     {De  Offic,  3,  17.) 

2  Quod  vero  naturalis  ratio  inter  omnes  homines  constituit,  id  apud 
omnes  peraeque  custoditur,  vocaturque  Jus  gentium,  quasi  quo  jure 
omnes  gentus  utuntur.     {JiisL,  lib.  i,  tit.  2.     Gains,  lib.  2,  tit.  10.) 

2  Adversus  hostem,  aeterna  auctoritas.     {Tab.  Duod.y  and  Cic.   d£ 

Offic.) 

*  Quidquid  in  hostibus  feci,  jus  belli  defendit.     {Liv.,  xxvi.  30.) 

*  Nequo  erit  alia  lex  Romae,  alia  Athenis,  alia  nunc,  alia  post  hac  ; 
sed  et  omnes  gentes  et  omni  tempore  una  lex  et  sempiterna  et  immu 
tabilis,  etc.     (Z?e  Rep.,  1.  iii.  c.  22.) 


324  CESTA   CHRISTI. 

was,  that  men  were  bound  to  no  duties  to  one  another 
without  some  express  contract,  Foreigners  could  any- 
where be  seized,  imprisoned,  enslaved  or  killed,  without 
any  breach  of  human  or  Divine  laws. 

Even  Justinian's  code  seems  to  allow  that  a  prisoner  of 
war  may  rightly  be  made  a  slave.^ 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  from  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire 
to  the  eleventh  century,  there  may  be  said  to  have  been 
no  international  law,  or  only  a  confusion  of  customs,  some 
of  which  had  been  influenced  by  principles  of  equity,  while 
others  rested  on  barbarism.  The  Italian  States,  which 
were  especially  under  the  influence  of  commerce,  in  the 
twelfth  century,  were  among  the  first  to  frame  treaties  in 
regard  to  the  liberty  of  the  seas  and  the  right  of  prize  in 
the  time  of  peace.  The  early  commercial  codes  of  the 
north  of  Europe,  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  of  Europeans 
in  the  East,  contained  many  features  of  modern  inter- 
national law.  Piracy,  however,  was  still  allowed  in  the 
time  of  war.  The  first  check  to  "  private  war "  on  the 
sea  was  made  by  privateering,  near  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century,  as  we  shall  hereafter  detail. 

One  of  the  first  appeals  of  one  nation  to  the  others,  as  if 
they  formed  one  commonwealth,  was  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury ;  and  in  the  thirteenth  century  we  find  the  good  king, 
St.  Louis  of  France,  chosen  arbitrator  between  Henry 
III.  of  England  and  his  barons.  In  1356  Edward  III. 
made  an  appeal  to  "  all  Christendom "  against  John  of 
France,  as  if  a  certain  bond  united  all  European  peoples. 
Yet  so  little  progress  had  international  right  made,  that  in 
the  reign  of  St.  Louis,  we  are  told  by  his  biographer  that 
if  two  kings  were  at  war  and  one  of  them  died,  the  ambas- 
sadors who  were  sent  reciprocally  remained  prisoners  and 

'  Et  liber  homo  noster  ab  eis  captus,  servus  fit  et  eorum.  {Dig^ 
lib.  xlix.  tit.  IS,  3) 


BARBARITIES  IN  MIDDLE  AGES.  325 

slaves.*  The  barbarities  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  warfare 
were  equal  to  those  of  the  worst  of  the  Roman  times.  The 
Normans  are  said  by  historians  to  have  put  their  prisoner.-^ 
to  death  under  terrible  tortures  ;  some  were  suspended  over 
slow  fires  and  hung  by  their  feet  or  thumbs  ;  some  had 
their  brains  crushed  by  tight  ligatures  ;  some  were  thrown 
into  dungeons  with  serpents.  Female  prisoners  were 
exposed  to  the  most  brutal  treatment.  The  Scotch,  in 
their  invasion  of  England  under  David  I.,  murdered  the 
sick  and  the  aged  in  their  beds,  infants  on  the  breasts  of 
the  mother,  and  priests  at  the  altar.  The  Italians  in  their 
invasion  of  Sicily  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century  were 
equally  cruel,  burying  prisoners  alive,  burning  priests  and 
throwing  them  into  the  sea.  Of  the  many  wars  between 
the  French  and  English,  an  old  author  describing  their 
effects  says,  "  Churches  are  despoiled  ;  men  everywhere 
murthered  or  wounded,  others  put  to  death  or  tortured  ; 
matrons  ravished  ;  maydes  forcibly  drawn  out  of  their 
parent's  arms  to  be  deflowered  ;  towns  daily  taken,  daily 
spoiled,  daily  defaced  ;  the  riches  of  the  inhabitants  carried 
whither  the  conquerors  thinke  good  ;  houses  and  villages 
round  about  set  on  fire  ;  no  kind  of  cruelty  is  left  unprac- 
tised." 2 

Nor  were  wanting  in  the  Middle  Ages  prominent  indi- 
vidual instances  of  similar  barbarism.  The  natural  son  of 
Frederick  II.  in  1264,  in  his  war  with  the  Pope,  punished 
with  mutilation  and  death  all  priests  taken  prisoners. 
Prisoners  were  not  uncommonly  either  mutilated  or  killed. 
The  old  Roman  custom  or  law,^  that  an  enemy  who  had 

1  Suivant  la  coutume  alors  usitee  en  Payennie  comme  en  Chretiente 
que  quand  dcix  Princes  cstaicnt  en  guerre,  si  I'un  d'eux  venoit  a 
mourir,  les  Ambassadeurs  qui  s'estoient  envoyes  reciproquement, 
demeuroient  prisonniers  et  esclaves.     (jfoiiiville,  Vie  de  St.  I^uis.) 

2  Quoted  by  Ward,  in  Laws  of  Nations. 

•  Varum  in  pace  qui  pervenerunt  ad  akeros,  si  bcllum  subito  exar- 


326  GESTA    CHRISTL 

come  to  another  country,  even  in  time  of  peace,  could,  i( 
war  broke  out,  be  enslaved,  existed  in  Europe  in  the  Middle 
Ages ;  and  the  enslavement  of  prisoners  did  not  cease  till 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  the  treaties  in 
that  century  generally  stipulating  that  prisoners  should 
not  be  sent  by  their  captors  to  the  galleys. 

Among  the  individual  instances  of  cruelty,  it  is  related 
by  the  chroniclers  that  Rufus,  son  of  William  the  Con- 
queror, cut  off  the  hands  and  feet  of  the  Welsh  prisoners 
taken  by  him.  The  Emperor  Barbarossa  is  said  to  have 
delivered  all  the  prisoners  taken  in  Milan  to  the  ex- 
ecutioner or  to  have  shot  them  off  from  military  engines. 
These  instances  of  cruelty  in  that  age  could  be  multi- 
plied without  limit.  Poisoned  weapons  and  missiles  were 
used  even  as  late  as  the  fifteenth  century.  In  the  same 
century  it  was  a  public  custom  to  hang  prisoners  taken 
in  a  siege ;  and  it  appears  to  have  been  a  recognised  law 
of  war  that  a  relieving  force,  entering  a  fortified  place  after 
the  siege  was  commenced,  was  liable  to  the  severest  punish- 
ments. 

Officers  who  had  fought  gallantly  and  were  beaten  in 
the  open  field,  were  often,  after  capture,  executed  by  the 
victor.  Ambassadors  were  frequently  killed  on  their  mis- 
sions of  peace.  In  fact,  it  may  be  said  that  from  the  time 
of  Caesar  till  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  very  little 
progress  in  the  laws  of  war.  Christianity  had  not  so 
touched  the  peoples  of  Europe  as  even  to  soften  super- 
ficially the  barbarism  of  ancient  times. 

The  only  redeeming  features  were  an  indirect  result 
of  Christianity — the  compassion  and  courtesy  introduced 
by  chivalry  and  the  ransoming  of  prisoners  among  the 
knights.      But    these   were    humanities    which    were    ex- 

sisset,  eorum  servi  efficiuntur,  apud  quos  jam  hostes  suo  facto  depre- 
henduntnr.     {Di^.y  xlix.  15,  12.) 


ENSLAVEMENT  OF  PRISONERS.  327 

etjised  only  among  a  class.  They  did  not  reach  the 
common  soldier,  or  benefit  the  peasant  and  labourer. 
Fearful  acts  of  atrocity  against  peasants  and  citizens  by 
the  kings  and  generals  of  the  Middle  Ages  are  often 
reported. 

The  first  great  change  was  in  the  treatment  of  prisoners. 
Suarez,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  states  that  the  old  custom 
of  the  Roman  law  of  nations,  of  making  slaves  of  prisoners, 
had  been  changed  in  the  Church,  and  was  no  longer  ob- 
served among  Christians.^  An  old  English  historian,  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  (1570  a.d.)  thus  states  the  reform: — 
"  Howbeit  since  our  Realme  hath  received  the  Christian 
religion,  which  maketh  us  all  brethren  in  Christ,  conservos 
(fellow-servants),  men  beganne  to  have  conscience  to  hold 
in  captivitie  and  such  e.xtra-bondage,  him  whom  they  must 
acknowledge  to  be  their  brother  ;  that  is,  who  looketh  in 
Christ  and  by  Christ  to  have  equal  portion  with  them  in 
the  gospel  and  salvation."  ' 

Ayala  writing  in  the  sixteenth  century  says,  that  in 
the  wars  of  Christians,  the  enslavement  of  prisoners  is  not 
permitted,  nor  perpetual  imprisonment,  and  that  all  such 
wars  are  only  civil  wars,  because  all ,  are  "  brethren  in 
Christ."  3 

It  was  not,  however,  till  the  treaty  of  Munster  (1648) 
that  it  became  the  general  custom  of  European  nations  to 
release  all  prisoners  at  the  end  of  the  war,  without  ransom. 
This    important    step    in    humane  progress,   it    should    be 

'  Sic  enim  Jus  Gentium  de  servitute  captivorum  in  bello  justo,  in 
Ecclesia  mutatum  est,  et  inter  Christianos,  id  non  servatur.  (JDe  legi- 
bus.     Suarez)      Ward,  vol.  ii.  p.  27. 

2  Commonwealth  of  England,  previously  cited. 

3  Et  in  prima  receptum  est  ut  in  bellis  Christianorum  servitus  non 
sit.  Haec  enim  bella  non  plus  quam  civilia  sint  quia  omnes  in 
Christi  fratres,  etc.  (Lib.  iii.-ix.,  De  Jure  et  Bellicis  officiis,  1597.) 
See  also  p.  54,  ibid.,ss\6.  Alberici  Gentilis,  De  Jure  Belli,  Oxford,  1877. 


528  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

noted,  is  coincident  with  the  revival  of  pure  Christianity 
in  England  and  many  portions  of  the  Continent.  Previous 
to  this  treaty,  in  1 630  we  find  a  distinct  allusion  to  the 
slavery  of  prisoners  of  war  in  the  treaty  of  Madrid  be- 
tween Spain  and  England  (Art  xxviii.).  "  Prisoners 
taken  in  war  on  both  sides,  although  condemned  to  the 
galleys,  shall  be  set  at  liberty  and  dismissed  upon  payment 
of  their  expenses  by  those  who  are  not  in  the  galleys,  and 
upon  payment  of  their  ransom  by  those  who  had  formerly 
agreed  to  it." 

Many  of  the  non-Christian  nations  held  that  no  faith 
was  to  be  kept  with  those  not  of  their  own  belief  Even 
the  Koran  taught  this.^  The  Mohammedan  powers  in 
the  north  of  Africa  enslaved  all  shipwrecked  persons  and 
prisoners,  and  tortured  their  captives.  Only  direct  treaties 
with  European  powers "  secured  the  abolition  of  these 
barbarities. 

The  Turks  in  the  sixteenth  century  treated  even  am- 
bassadors with  inhumanity,  though  European  customs  had 
become  gradually  humane  towards  these  officials,  and 
resident  ambassadors  were  permitted  to  dwell  with  safety 
in  the  country  of  a  rival  or  enemy.  The  Spaniards 
imitated  the  Turks  in  putting  prisoners  to  death  or  send- 
ing them  to  the  galleys  ;  even  in  the  declaration  that  no 
faith  was  to  be  kept  with  heretics. 

It  was  not  till  1828,  that  Turkey  and  Persia  agreed  to 
exchange  prisoners  according  to  the  custom  of  Christian 
nations.^ 

One  of  the  earliest  expositions  of  international  duties 
was  made  about  1506  A.D.  by  Prior  Honore  Bonnor,  in  a 

*  Hedaya,  ix.  3. 

*  Treaty  with  Algiers  in  1686,  and  with  Tripoli  and  Tunis.  IVard^ 
ro\  ii.  p.  331. 

*  Manning's  Laws  of  Nations,  p.  162. 


IVA/?S  AGAINST  INFIDELS.  329 

work  called  "  L'arbre  des  Batailles."  ^  This  writer  shows 
strongly  the  influence  of  his  professed  faith^  in  his  recom- 
mendations :  he  teaches  that  battles  should  be  avoided  on 
holy  days;  that  those  dying  in  unjust  wars  do  not  go  to 
heaven,  and  claims  the  exemption  of  Churchmen,  pilgrims, 
the  sick  and  infirm  from  the  duties  and  evils  of  war.  He 
even  permits  the  students  of  belligerent  powers  to  visit  the 
universities  of  one  another  during  the  struggle. 

The  early  writers  on  international  law  seem  to  have 
been  in  advance  of  the  practice  of  the  Church  in  respect 
to  wars  with  non-Christian  nations.  The  author  quoted 
above  says :  "  By  what  right  can  we  make  war  against 
Sarassins  or  other  infidels  ?  I  will  prove  that  we  cannot 
do  it  lawfully  for  their  being  infidels  .  .  .  Moreover 
we  should  not  and  cannot,  according  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, oblige  infidels  to  embrace  the  holy  faith  and  baptism, 
but  must  leave  them  with  the  free  will  which  God  has 
given  them."  ^  Ayala  makes  a  similar  humane  protest 
(lib.  1-28). 

A  striking  instance  of  the  influence  of  Christianity  in 
the  barbarous  period  of  Europe,  is  contained  in  Alcuin's 
letter  to  Charlemagne,  wherein  he  reminds  him  to  show 
mercy  to  prisoners,  even  as  God  will  show  mercy  to  him.^ 

Grotms. — The  great  reforms  in  modern  international 
law,  due  especially  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  began  in 
great  part  with  the  eminent  Dutch  publicist,  Grotius,  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  He  thus  states  the  motives 
which  prompted  him  to  his  great  work : 

"  For  I   saw,  prevailing  through  the  Christian  world,  a  license  in 


*  Uarbre  des  Batailles,  1 506,  Lyon. 

'  Ibid.,  quoted  by  Digby,  3,153  {Mor.  Cath). 

'  Memor  sit  pietas  vestra  captivorum,  etc.  {Al.  Ep,  90). 


330  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

making  war,  of  which  even  barbarians  would  have  been  ai^hameJ  ; 
recourse  being  had  to  arms  for  slight  reason  or  no  reason,  and  when 
arms  were  once  taken  up,  all  reverence  for  divine  and  human  law  was 
thrown  away,  just  as  if  men  were  thenceforth  authorized  to  comiiiit 
all  crime  without  restraint."  ' 

The  Law  of  Nature,  on  which,  as  is  well  known,  he 
especially  bases  his  Law  of  Nations,  he  ascribes  to  God, 
and  speaks  of  express  laws  of  God  as  "restraining 
passion,"  and  touches  the  key-note  of  modern  humane 
progress  in  these  words  : 

"  The  Sacred  History  doth  not  a  little  provoke  us  to  mutual  love  by 
leaching  that  we  are  all  of  us  born  of  the  same  first  parents." - 

The  reforms  of  the  laws  of  war  in  modern  times  have 
been  especially  in  the  direction  of  limiting,  so  far  as 
possible,  its  evil  effects  to  the  combatants,  of  allowing  no 
damage  which  did  not  conduce  to  the  purpose  of  the  war, 
and  of  abolishing  the  dictum  of  barbarism,  that  if  two 
nations  are  at  war,  all  the  citizens  of  each  must  be  also 
enemies.  The  last  principle  still  lingers  in  the  writings  of 
many  publicists,  but  Grotius  was  too  much  imbued  with 
the  Religion  of  Love  to  be  willing  to  recognise  it.  Of 
war,  some  of  his  opinions  are  still  worth  quoting  and 
remembering. 

"  We  Christians  are  especially  taught  to  expose  our  own  lives  to  the 
greatest  perils  that  can  be,  to  preserve  the  lives  and  procure  the  ever- 
lasting welfare  of  others,  in  imitation  of  our  great  Lord  and  Master. 
.  .  .  How  much  more  reason  have  we  to  forbear  the  prosecution  of 
our  just  rights  when  they  cannot  be  obtained  without  the  effusion  of  so 
much  blood,  and  the  destruction  of  so  many  men's  lives  and  estates, 
besides  other  mischiefs  which  war  usually  brings  with  it."  "When 
we  consider  that  by  the  Hebrew  Law,  he  who  had  slain  a  man  even 


'  De  Jure  Belli^  etc.,  Hugo  Grotius  (preliminr  ry  statement).    Evait'f 
tians.  1782. 
*  Preface. 


CROTIUS'  IDEAS  IN  ADVANCE   OF  HIS  AGE.    331 

without  intending  it,  was  obliged  to  fly  ;  that  God  forbade  His  templr 
to  be  built  by  David,  who  is  related  to  have  carried  on  private  wars, 
because  he  had  shed  much  blood  ;  that  even  among  the  ancient  Greeks, 
those  who  had  stained  their  hands  with  manslaughtei',  even  without 
fault,  had  need  of  expiation,  how  can  any  one  fail  to  see,  especially 
among  Christians,  what  an  unhappy  and  disastrous  thing  and  how 
strenuously  to  be  avoided,  is  a  war,  even  when  not  unjust ''  (p.  283). 

"  Good  faith,"  which  was  at  that  day  so  generally  violated 
in  the  relations  of  nations,  is  thus  urged,  on  both  secular 
and  religious  grounds : 

"And,  therefore,  it  is  especially  the  office  of  kings  to  cherish  good 
faith,  first  for  the  sake  of  conscience,  and  then  for  the  sake  of  good 
opinion,  by  which  the  authority  of  kingdoms  stands.  Let  them  be 
certain,  therefore,  that  they  who  instil  into  them  acts  of  deceit,  arc 
themselves  the  deceivers  they  would  make  them.  Doctrines  cannot 
long  work  well  which  make  men  unfit  for  society  with  man,  and  we 
may  add,  hateful  to  God"  (c.  25,  t.  11). 

His  views  of  privateering  have  anticipated  the  reforms 
of  this  century,  and  are  evidently  guided  by  the  Christian 
theory  of  life. 

"  But  even  if  justice,  strictly  speaking,  be  not  violated,  there  may  be 
an  offence  against  loving  our  neighbour,  especially  in  a  Christian 
aspect,  as  if  it  appears  that  such  privateering  will  not  hurt  the  general 
body  of  the  enemy,  or  their  king,  or  the  guilty  portion  of  them,  but  the 
innocent ;  and  it  will  inflict  upon  them  calamities  which  it  would  be 
cruel  to  inflict  even  on  those  who  are  personally  indebted  to  us.  And 
if  besides  this,  such  a  privateering  is  not  likely  to  conduce  either  to 
the  termination  of  the  war,  or  to  any  notable  damage  of  the  enemy's 
public  power,  then  it  must  be  considered  unworthy  of  a  right-minded 
man,  and  especially  a  Christian,  to  make  a  gain  in  this  way  out  of  the 
unhappiness  of  the  times"  (c.  18,  t.  14). 

He  opposes  from  religious  grounds  that  rule  of  the 
Law  of  Nations,  derived  from  Roman  Law,  that  prisoners 
should  be  slaves, 

"  But  even  among  Christians,  it  is  universally  agreed  that  being  at 
war  among   themselves,  they  that  are  taken  prisoners  are  not  made 


J32  GESTA    CHRISTl. 

slaves,  so  as  to  sell  them,  or  to  enforce  them  to  servile  ofifices,  or  ta 
impose  upon  them  such  things  as  they  usually  do  in  slavery.  .  ,  , 
And  this  at  least  (though  but  a  small  matter),  hath  the  Christian 
religion  brought  to  perfection,  which  Socrates  attempted  to  have  done 
among  the  Greeks  but  could  not.  .  .  .  That  such  as  are  taken  in 
war,  are  kept  in  safe  custody  till  their  ransom  be  paid"  (c.  3,  t.  7,  8). 
.  .  .  "  But  in  our  days,  not  only  among  Christians,  but  even  among 
Mohammedans,  this  right  of  captivity  without  the  time  of  war,  is  worn 
out  of  use.  The  necessity  being  taken  away  by  virtue  of  that  con- 
nection or  affinity,  wherein  nature  hath  joined  us,  which  is  now  re- 
acknowledged  to  be  between  all  mankind"  (c.  3,  9,  19). 

In  harmony  with  his  faith,  he  exhorts  humanity  towards 
women,  clerks,  farmers,  merchants,  and  to  all  in  battle  who 
cry  quarter,  or  offer  to  yield.     He  quotes  the  lines 

"  Quique  suos  cives  quod  signa  adversa  tulerunt 
Non  credat  fecisse  nefas  ! 

And  declares  "  cives  "  to  mean  not  neighbours  of  the  same 
town  or  country,  but  citizens  of  the  same  world  (3,  11,  16), 
as  if  he  anticipated  the  modern  doctrine  of  international 
law,  that  governments  may  be  enemies,  and  yet  their 
citizens  not  hostile. 

"All  duels,"  he  adds,  "and  trials  by  combatants,  seeing  that  they 
are  of  no  use,  either  to  the  decision  of  right  or  the  ending  of  a  war, 
but  merely  for  ostentation  of  strength,  are  not  only  repugnant  to  our 
Christian  profession,  but  to  the  laws  of  humane  society"  (c.  3,  15,  14). 
"  No  useless  damage  is  to  be  done,  and  therefore  what  some  divines 
have  observed  and  taught,  I  must  needs  assent  unto,  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  such  commanders  as  would  be  thought  Christians  (as  far  as  in 
them  lies)  to  intercede  for,  and  hinder  the  sacking  and  pillaging  of 
towns  and  cities,  especially  of  such  things  in  them  as  add  but  little  to 
the  conquest  being  taken  away,  so  that  such  acts  Christian  clemency 
and  justice  itself  doth  abhor.  Surely  there  is  a  greater  tie  and  obli- 
gation among  Christians  than  there  ever  was  anciently  among  the 
Greeks." 

The  great  Christian  publicist  urges  also  to  spare  the 
property  of  those  who  have  in  no  way  offended    as  the 


GROTIUS  ON  ARBITRATION.  333 

authors  of  the  war,  "  for  the  rules  of  charity  are  of  larger 
extent  than  those  of  justice  "  (3,  14,  4). 

The  violation  of  women,  so  common  after  the  assault  of 
fortified  places,  he  condemns  as  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
war.  On  the  latest  conquest  of  Christianity  and  humane 
principle  in  the  field  of  international  relations, 

Arbitration,  the  Dutch  publicist  of  the  seventeenth 
century  is  in  harmony  with  the  most  advanced  views  of 
the  nineteenth  century.     He  says, — 

"  For  if,  both  Jews  and  Christians  have  thought  fit  to  appoint 
arbitrators  among  themselves  to  determine  all  controversies  to  the 
intent  that  brotliers  should  not  go  to  law  with  unbelievers,  how  much 
more  reason  is  there  that  such  arbitrators  or  judges  should  be  chosen 
by  us  to  prevent  mischief  far  greater  than  going  to  law,  namely  :  spoil, 
rapine,  murther,  yea  and  sometimes  desolation,  which  are  the  unhappy 
concomitants  of  cruel  war."  "  And  indeed,  it  is  very  unfit  for  princes 
who  profess  themselves  to  be  followers  of  Christ,  to  rush  into  arms  one 
against  another  with  so  much  bitterness,  seeing  that  there  are  other 
means  found  out  to  compromise  their  quarrels "  (p.  463).  "  And  for 
this  as  for  many  other  reasons,  it  will  be  very  convenient,  nay 
necessary,  that  constant  diets  and  conventions  of  Christian  princes 
should  be  held  where,  by  the  prudence  and  moderation  of  such  as 
are  not  interested,  all  controversies  may  be  composed ;  yea,  and  that 
some  expedient  may  be  found,  to  force  both  parties  to  accept  of  peace 
upon  equal  and  just  terms." 

And  the  great  publicist  closes  his  immortal  work  with 
these  memorable  words  : 

"A  safe  and  honoured  peace  is  not  too  dearly  bought  if  it  may  be 
had  by  foregoing  as  well  the  offending  as  the  charges  and  damages  of 
war,  especially  to  us  Christians,  to  whom  our  great  Lord  and  Master 
hath  bequeathed  Peace  as  His  last  legacy."  "  God,  who  alone  can  do 
it,  instil  these  things  into  the  hearts  of  those  who  manage  the  affairs 
of  Christendom!" 

We  have  dwelt  thus  at  length  on  the  views  of  Grotius, 
because  they  have  affected  the  relations  of  nations  more, 
probably,  than  the  writings  of  any  publicist  before  or  since 


334  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

his  time,  and   because  they  are  so  distinctly  the  fruit  of 
Christian  forces  in  the  world. 

Right  over  Heathen  Territory. — One  of  the  curses  of  the 
world  has  been  the  supposed  right  of  nominally  Christian 
oeoples  to  take  possession  of  heathen  territory,  and  despoil 
non-Christian  tribes.  The  Church  has  always  supported 
this  right.  The  famous  bull  of  Pope  Alexander  VI.  (1493) 
gave  up  in  effect  all  the  lands  in  North  and  South 
America,  100  leagues  west  of  the  line  of  the  Azores,  to 
the  empire  of  Spain  ;  and  this  supposed  right  was  the 
source  of  endless  wars  and  oppression,  and  the  slaughter 
and  slavery  of  thousands  of  Indians. 

Queen  Elizabeth  gave  a  similar  title  to  Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert  over  certain  "  remote  heathen  and  barbarous  lands" 
in  North  America.  Though  the  Church  was  false  to  its 
Master  in  the  spirit  of  these  claims,  the  great  writers  on 
international  law,  imbued  with  His  spirit,  were  nearer  the 
truth.  Grotius  objects  to  any  power  or  claim  of  the 
Christian  Church  over  remote  and  heathen  peoples. 

Bonnor,  a  still  earlier  writer  on  this  topic,  declares,  as  we 
have  seen,  that  war  cannot  lawfully  be  made  by  Christian 
powers  against  Saracens,  merely  on  account  of  their  faith.^ 
Victoria^  (about  1557  A.D.)  says  that  the  Pope  has  no 
temporal  authority  over  the  barbarous  Indians  or  other 
infidels,  and  that  Christian  princes  have  no  right,  merely 
from  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  to  coerce  barbarians  or  to 
punish  them.^  Ayala  holds  the  same  views,  and  Alberici 
Gentilis. 

*  Uarbre  des  batailles^  c.  35, 

2  Papa  nulluin  potestatem  temporalem  habet  in  barbaros  Indos^ 
neque  in  alios  infideles.     (^Relectio  de  Ind.,  2,  6.) 

•*  Principes  Christiani  non  possunt  etiam  auctoritate  papae  coercere 
barbaros,  etc 


PRIVA  TEERING,  335 

Puffendorf  advocated  equally  liberal  principles. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Great  Teacher 
has  as  yet  much  affected  modern  international  law  on  this 
important  topic.  Still  a  beginning  has  been  made  in 
teaching  universal  justice  as  obligatory  ftom  Christian  to 
heathen,  and  from  a  great  power  to  a  weak. 

Progress  in  Modern  International  Law. — Progress  in 
international  law  we  shall  now  proceed  to  test  by  the 
humane  changes,  both  in  practice,  custom  and  law,  shown 
in  the  public  settlements,  codes,  treaties  and  acts  of  nations 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  in  the  views  of  eminent 
publicists.  The  high-water  mark  of  humane  practice  and 
theory  in  public  law  in  this  century  is  probably  best  shown 
in  two  documents — the  Code  of  Instructions  issued  by 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  during  the  great 
Civil  War,  to  their  officers  and  soldiers,  compiled  by  Prof. 
Lieber,  and  the  proposed  Code  for  a  Law  of  Nations, 
compiled  by  Prof  Bluntschli,  who  has  himself  borne  so 
distinguished  a  part  in  the  practical  application  of  these 
Christian  and  humane  principles  in  the  arbitration  settle- 
ment of  Geneva  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States.  From  these  two  sources  we  shall  attempt  to 
ascertain  what  the  Christian  system  has  already  accom- 
plished in  public  law  and  custom,  and  what  it  proposes  to 
accomplish  in  the  future. 

Privateering. — Apart  from  these,  we  will  first  examine, 
however,  the  changes  made  in  "  Private  War  "  on  the  seas, 
or  Privateering.  Under  the  combined  influences  of  the 
religious  spirit  and  the  mercantile  habits,  Private  War  on 
land,  especially  in  Germany,  as  we  have  seen,  was  put  an 
end  to,  and  Courts  of  Arbitration  {Austrdge)  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  decided  between  the  incessant 
contests    and    disputes  of   separate    cities,  counties    and 


336  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

provinces,  until  at  length  Law  took  the  place  of  Foice. 
Private  War  or  piracy,  however,  still  lingered  on  the  sea, 
and  individual  merchants  and  different  sea-ports  were 
obliged  to  associate  together  to  defend  themselves  from 
incessant  robbery  and  plundering  by  corsairs. 

The  first  great  check  to  this  was  caused  in  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  by  the  issuing  of  letters  of  marque 
or  reprisal  by  various  princes,  authorizing  certain  indi- 
viduals to  plunder  on  the  high  seas  in  time  of  peace. 
Privateering  was  thus  originally  in  the  interest  of  public 
order.  The  first  law  in  the  history  of  France  authorizing 
privateering  appeared  in  1400,  and  distinctly  characterized 
it  as  a  means  of  preventing  Private  War,  where  indi- 
viduals took  vengeance  in  their  own  hands.^ 

In  the  same  century  similar  authorizations  were  issued 
by  the  Low  Countries,  England  and  various  powers. 

An  English  Act  of  Parliament  (1414)  required  privateers 
to  bring  their  prizes  to  an  English  port,  and  to  make 
declaration  of  capture  to  the  justices  of  the  peace,  under 
penalty  of  confiscation  of  the  prize  and  the  captor. 

During  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  privateering 
was  often  well  regulated,  and,  owing  to  the  comparative 
unimportance  of  commerce  then,  did  not  attain  to  so  great 
and  injurious  a  development  as  in  the  succeeding  centuries. 
During  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the  com- 
merce of  both  neutral  and  belligerent  powers  suffered 
immensely  from  this  species  of  robbery.  The  Christian 
spirit  (as  the  words  of  Grotius  show)  was  always  opposed 
to  it.  Isolated  efforts  were  made  to  abolish  it.  Thus  in 
1675,  Holland  and  Sweden  make  a  treaty,  agreeing  not  to 

1  Aucun  .  .  .  k  ses  propies  despens  pour  porter  guerre  k  nos 
ennemis  ce  sera  par  le  cong^  et  consuitement  de  nostre  dit  amiral  ou 
son  lieutenant.  L'Ordonnance  sur  Icfaict  de  I'ainirandc  {Hixutefeuille^ 
vol.  ii.  p.  340). 


PRIVATEERING.  337 

issue  letters  of  marque,  but  this  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  a  permanent  agreement.  In  her  w  irs  with  Turkey  be- 
tween 1767-74,  Russia  did  not  employ  privateers.  In  the 
eighteenth  century,  privateering  had  become  an  organized 
piracy,  and  almost  every  treaty  attempted,  but  in  vain,  to 
restrain  it.  In  that  century  an  American,  who  though 
often  called  an  unbeliever,  was  filled  with  the  truest  spirit 
of  Christianity,  has  the  credit  of  bringing  about  one  of  the 
first  important  treaties  which  abolished  it. 

"  It  is  for  the  interest  of  humanity  in  general,"  says  Franklin  in 
a  pubhc  despatch  to  the  British  Commissioner  in  1783,  "that  the 
occasions  of  war  and  the  inducements  to  it,  should  be  diminished.  If 
rapine  is  abolished,  one  of  the  encouragements  of  war  is  taken  away, 
and  peace  therefore  more  likely  to  continue  and  be  lasting.  The 
practice  of  robbing  merchants  on  the  high  seas,  a  remnant  of  the 
ancient  piracy,  though  it  may  be  accidentally  beneficial  to  pubhc 
persons,  is  far  from  being  profitable  to  all  engaged  in  it,  or  to  the 
nation  that  authorizes  it."  * 

And  again, 

"The  United  States  though  better  situated  than  any  other  nation 
to  profit  by  privateering,  are,  so  far  as  in  them  lies,  endeavouring  to 
abolish  the  practice  by  offering  in  all  their  treaties  with  other  powers, 
an  article  engaging  solemnly  that  in  case  of  a  future  war,  no  privateer 
shall  be  commissioned  on  either  side,  and  that  merchant  ships  shall 
pursue  their  voyages,  unmolested."^ 

Through  Franklin's  influence,  the  treaty  between  Prussia 
and  the  United  States  in  1785,  contained  the  well-known 
clause  in  which  each  power  gave  up  the  right  of  commis- 
sioning privateers  against  the  other,  in  case  of  war.  This 
provision  however  was  not  revived  in  the  renewal  of  the 
treaty  in  1799. 

So  well  entrenched  was  this  practice,  that  a  distir^guished 

'  Letter  to  Mr.  Oswald,  British  Commissionet  {Franklin's  Writings^ 
vol.  ii.  p.  485  ;  ix.  pp.  41,  267). 
■•^  Letter  0/  Franklin,  17S5. 

Z 


338  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

French  publicist  (Hautefeuille)  even  in  this  century  ven- 
tured to  say,  "The  opinion  generally  adopted  on  the 
utility  of  privateering  against  an  enemy,  and  especially, 
the  object  not  avowed  but  real,  the  ruin  of  neutral  nations, 
will  always  prevent  a  certain  nation  from  consenting  to 
the  abolition  of  a  practice,  upon  which  it  founds  its  mari- 
time greatness."  ^  This  publicist  might  have  lived  to  see 
"  a  certain  nation "  taking  part  in  the  congress  which 
abolished  it.  Still  it  is  to  be  admitted  that  the  general 
policy  of  Great  Britain  up  to  this  century  has  been  adverse 
to  humane  progress  in  maritime  law,  with  reference  to 
privateering,  blockade,  and  the  law  of  contraband.  Her 
course  has  certainly  tended  to  make  war  "  bellum  omnium 
contra  omnes  "  (a  war  of  all  against  all)  instead  of  limiting 
it,  under  the  modern  and  more  reasonable  view. 

The  great  reform  in  international  law,  as  limiting  the 
effects  of  war,  dates  from  the  Congress  of  Paris,  1856, 
wherein  all  the  great  Powers  of  Europe,  together  with 
Turkey  and,  later,  forty  other  States,  agreed  to  the  abolition 
of  privateering,  and  to  the  rules  which  protected  neutral 
commerce,"  and  confined  wars  as  far  as  practicable  to 
belligerents.  Unfortunately  for  the  fame  of  the  United 
States  as  a  pioneer  in  humane  progress,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered that  her  government  refused  to  accept  the  rule 
abolishing  privateering,  unless  there  were  accompanied 
with  it  a  stipulation  of  the  inviolability  of  private  property 
on  the  sea,  excepting  only  contraband  of  war.  This  last 
is  a  reform  which,  as  is  the  case  with  the  partial  protection 
of  private  property  on  land,  requires  the  slow  action  of 

'  Les  Dfoits  des  nations  ncittres,  vol.  ii.  p.  340. 

2  That  the  neutral  flag  covers  an  enemy's  goods,  and  neutral  gooas 
are  not  seizable  among  an  enemy's  goods — contraband  of  war  in  both 
cases  being  excepted  ;  and  that  a  blockade,  to  be  real,  must  be 
efifective. 


INVIOLABILITY  OF  PRIVA  TE  MARITIME  PROPERTY.  339 

Christianized  opinion.  Whether  the  American  government 
were  sincere  in  urging  it  at  that  time,  is  at  least  open  to 
question.  At  this  time,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
American  people  are  heartily  in  favour  of  it.  The  mercan- 
tile community  of  Continental  Europe,  especially  in  Ger- 
many, urged  this  reform  in  the  years  1859  ^"^1  i860,  with 
much  enthusiasm.  It  was  presented  and  voted  on  favour- 
ably in  many  legislatures.  There  is  little  doubt  that  a 
future  year,  not  far  distant,  will  see  its  general  adoption. 
It  rests  on  the  reasonable  idea,  that  war  as  a  terrible  and 
barbarous  Court  of  Arbitrament,  should  do  no  needless 
damage,  but  only  what  furthers  the  decision  and  determines 
the  final  issue. 

The  United  States  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion 
offered  to  accede  to  the  Declaration  of  Paris,  without  the 
condition  it  had  before  demanded.  The  proposed  separate 
conventions,  however,  on  this  subject  fell  through.  No 
letters  of  marque  were  issued  by  the  American  govern- 
ment during  the  civil  war,  though  authorized  by  Congress, 

The  German  and  French  governments  in  the  war  of 
1876,  held  to  their  agreement  and  employed  no  privateers. 
Prof  Bluntschli  in  his  proposed  code  (No.  670),  declares  it 
to  be  an  article  of  modern  international  law,  that  priva- 
teering is  abolished. 

Inviolability  of  private  maritime  property. — The  inviola- 
bility of  private  property  on  the  sea  was  admitted  in  the 
treaty  to  which  we  have  already  referred — that  of  1785 
between  Prussia  and  the  United  States :  and  was  recog- 
nised in  treaties  of  the  South  American  States,  in  1851  and 
1856  In  the  wars  of  Great  Britain  and  France  with  China, 
the  right  of  maritime  capture  was  suspended.^  In  March 
1865,  the  Emperor  of  the  French  made  public  restoration 
of  such  private  vessels,  belonging  to  Mexican  citizens,  as 
*  Field's  Code,  p.  530, 


340  GESTA    CHRISTL 

had  been  condemned  by  prize  courts,  and  the  proceeds  ol 
which  had  not  been  finally  adjudicated  upon.  European 
governments  have  often  at  the  close  of  wars,  restored 
captured  ships  and  formed  mixed  commissions  to  ascertain 
the  damages  incurred.  In  1861,  a  treaty  was  framed 
between  France  and  Peru,  which  exempted  all  private 
property  from  capture.^  The  same  principle  was  admitted 
by  Prussia,  Italy  and  Austria  in  the  war  of  1866  :  in  1868- 
the  parliament  of  Germany  passed  a  resolution,  inviting 
the  chancellor  to  obtain  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
safety  of  private  property  on  the  sea,  during  war ;  no 
public  acknowledgment  however  was  obtained.  In  the 
Franco-German  war  of  1870,  King  William  in  his  procla- 
mation of  1 8th  July,  declares  that  French  merchant  ships 
can  neither  be  brought  in  nor  captured  by  the  Federal 
marine.  This  advanced  measure  however  was  not  re- 
sponded to  by  the  French  government,  so  that  before  the 
close  of  the  war,  the  German  military  authorities  believed 
themselves  obliged  to  suspend  this  rule.  The  French 
Government  of  National  Defence  however  (28th  Oct.  1870) 
expressed  the  hope  that  the  progress  of  ideas  would  in 
this  matter  ultimately  soften  the  evils  of  war.^ 

In  July,  1870,  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  publicly  gave  utterance  to  the  expectation,  that 
the  people  would  soon  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the 
principle  universally  recognised  of  the  abolition  of  mari- 
time prizes. 

The  objections  made  to  this  reform,  even  by  so  enlight- 
ened a  publicist  as  Dana,  seem  of  little  weight.  Modern 
wars  are  of  so  concentrated  and  terrible  a  character,  that 
the  damage  done  to  individual  property  on  the  sea,  has 
little  influence  on  the  issue.  It  is  merely  a  useless  damage, 
which  modern  humanity  condemns,  even  toward  an  en^-my 

*  Field's  Code,  art.  846.  *  Bluntschli,  6615  n. 


INVIOLABILITY  OF  PRIVATE  PROPERTY.        341 

These  two  great  reforms  then — the  abolition  of  pri- 
vateering and  the  inviolability  of  private  property  on  the 
sea — may  be  considered  as  almost  won  by  the  humane 
influences  working  in  the  world  under  Christianity.  The 
principle  which  lies  at  the  base  of  this  and  similar  reforms, 
is  one  which  will  be  more  and  more  recognised  by  all  those 
truly  feeling  the  modern  teachings  of  humanity  :  the  prin- 
ciple that  war  is  between  states  and  not  individuals.  War, 
like  the  "judicial  duel"  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  a  process, 
terrible  and  barbarous  indeed,  whereby  justice  is  sought 
between  two  contestants.  The  citizens  of  each  state  are 
only  considered  as  enemies,  when  they  take  a  personal 
part  in  the  struggle,  or  discharge  public  duties.^  It  is  true 
that  many  eminent  publicists,  American  and  English,  do 
not  admit  this  principle.  According  to  Sir  J.  Nicholl, 
"  There  could  be  no  such  thing  as  a  war  for  arms  and  a 
peace  for  commerce."  Twiss,  in  his  "  Law  of  Nations," 
says  with  more  antithesis  than  truth,  "  because  private 
war  is  inconsistent  with  public  peace,  it  follows  that 
public  war  is  equally  inconsistent  with  private  peace "  ; 
Vattel  (book  III.  c.  5)  declares  all  the  citizens  of  belligerent 
nations,  enemies,  even  the  women  and  children  ;  and 
Kent  states  that  all  citizens  of  belligerents  are  in  hostility 
with  one  another. 

Modern  practice  however  under  the  influence  of  "  the 
enthusiasm  of  humanity  "  is  more  and  more  conforming 
itself  to  the  humane  principle.  Even  as  far  back  as 
the  French  Revolution,  Portalis,  minister  of  the  Republic, 
uttered  these  remarkable  words  at  the  opening  of  the 
Council  of  Prizes :  "  Between  two  or  more  belligerent 
nations,  the  individuals  of  which  those  nations  are  com- 
posed are  only  enemies  by  accident  ;  they  are  not  so 
as  men ;  they  are  not  so  even  as  citizens  ;  they  are  so 
'  BlwUschli,  Nos.  530,  532,  etc 


342  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

only  as  soldiers."^  In  the  war  of  1870,  King  William  of 
Germany  proclaimed :  "  I  make  war  against  French 
soldiers  not  against  French  citizens,'  assuring  the  citizens 
of  protection  to  their  property,  so  long  as  they  did  not 
indulge  in  acts  of  hostility  against  the  German  troops. 

TJie  New  Codes. — The  American  Instructions  and  Prof. 
Bluntschli's  Code,  forbid  putting  human  beings  to  death 
in  war,  without  object  or  utility,  or  the  wounding,  tor- 
turing, maltreating  or  enslaving  a  prisoner,  or  violating 
or  assailing  women.^  Both  demand  the  protection  of  the 
religion,  the  language,  the  intellectual  culture  and  honour 
of  the  vanquished.^  When  one  recalls  the  bloody  wars  of 
the  past,  whereby  one  form  of  religion  was  to  be  forced 
on  a  people  dissenting,  the  advance  in  modern  interna- 
tional customs  is  made  clear  to  the  most  doubting.  Both 
of  these  codes  forbid  all  carnage  and  destruction  which 
does  not  tend  to  the  re-establishment  of  justice — the 
object  of  war.  Even  the  killing  of  an  armed  enemy  use- 
lessly is  forbidden.*  Under  the  general  principle  of  which 
we  have  spoken,  the  plundering  of  property  in  an  enemy's 
country  ^  is  absolutely  forbidden  by  the  more  advanced 
rules  of  modern  international  law,  excepting  it  be  the 
fortune  of  the  belligerent  state  itself,  the  arms  and  equip- 
ment of  the  conquered  soldiers,  and  articles  contraband 
of  war.  There  is  still  also  left  in  question  the  plunder- 
ing of  the  property  of  citizens  in  a  place  taken  by  assault, 
and  the  right  of  maritime  prizes  ;  but  both  these  barbarous 
privileges  of  war  may  be  said  to  be  passing  away.  All 
public  buildings   for   scientific,  aesthetic   or   philanthropic 

•  Bhmtschli,  No.  531. 

•  A?ner.  Jnstr.,  16,  23,  42.    Blunt schli,  No.  574. 

•  Ainer.  Instr.^  37.    Bluntschli,  No.  579. 

•  Avier.  Instr.,  68.    Bh^ntschli,  No.  579 

•  Ibid.,  No.  657. 


THE  NEW  CODES.  343 

purposes  are  required  to  be  respected  in  an  enemy's 
country ;  and  it  is  no  longer  according  to  international 
usage^  to  carry  off  works  of  art  from  a  conquered  country 
or  to  sell  them  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  war.  It  is 
true  that  many  of  the  reforms  spoken  of  above  have  been 
cnly  carried  out  in  the  practice  of  one  or  two  nations, 
or  are  merely  proposals  of  eminent  publicists.  Still  the 
whole  body  of  international  law  is  merely  the  expression 
of  the  moral  ideas  and  principles  of  leading  nations  with 
regard  to  their  relations,  without  any  fixed  authority  but 
custom,  and  no  basis  but  justice  or  the  highest  utility. 
The  theories  of  eminent  writers  resting  on  the  strictest 
morality,  and  above  all,  the  practice  of  any  one  nation, 
must  profoundly  influence  all  nations. 

One  of  the  terrible  abuses  of  war  is  in  "  reprisals." 
Humanity  and  religion  have  as  yet  scarcely  influenced 
these.  The  American  Instructions  contain  indeed  excellent 
sentiments  on  this  subject,  and  they  were  not  violated 
by  the  United  States  during  the  civil  war.  "  Civilized 
nations,"  says  Art.  27,  "  acknowledge  in  retaliations  the 
sternest  feature  of  war.  A  reckless  enemy  often  leaves  to 
his  opponent  no  other  means  of  securing  himself  against 
the  repetition  of  barbarous  outrage.  Retaliation  will  there- 
fore never  be  resorteu  to  as  a  measure  of  mere  revenge,  but 
only  as  a  means  of  protection  and  retribution,  and  more- 
over cautiously  and  unavoidably ;  that  is  to  say,  retaliation 
shall  only  be  resorted  to  after  careful  enquiry  into  the  real 
occurrence  and  the  character  of  the  misdeeds  that  may 
demand  retribution.  Unjust  or  inconsiderate  retaliation 
removes  the  belligerents  farther  and  farther  from  the  miti- 
gating rules  of  a  regular  war,  and  by  rapid  steps  leads 
them  to  the  internecine  wars  of  savages."  (Art.  28.) 

Prof.  Bluntschli  is  equally  humane  in  his  view  of  this 
'  Blimtschli,  No.  650.     A  men  Instr.^  36. 


344  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

terrible  measure.^  The  recent  European  conventions  have 
however  been  able  in  no  degree  to  mitigate  the  law  of 
reprisals,  and  they  remain  the  great  cruelty  of  war. 

Three  recommendations  are  now  made  from  various 
quarters,  as  to  changes  in  international  customs  which  will 
tend  to  prevent  collisions  and  limit  war.  They  are  first, 
that  the  right  of  blockade  be  limited  to  naval  arsenals  and 
places  defended  by  armed  forces.  This  would  leave  trade 
in  food  or  similar  articles  with  small  and  undefended  ports, 
open  and  undisturbed.  Another  is  that  the  definitic^n  of 
"  contraband "  should  be  restricted  to  articles  intended 
directly  for  war,  such  as  guns  and  ammunition.  This 
again  would  render  trade  freer,  and  preserve  non-combat- 
ants from  much  annoyance  and  suffering.  A  third  is,  that 
the  right  of  search  be  restricted  so  as  only  to  touch  contra- 
band articles,  and  impede  efforts  to  break  a  blockade.  All 
these  are  in  the  line  of  modern  reforms. 

The  Wounded. — Nothing  disgraced  the  humanity  of  the 
past,  like  the  neglect  and  cruelty  practised  towards  the 
wounded  in  war.  Under  modern  law,  the  ambulances  and 
military  hospitals  for  the  wounded  are  held  to  be  neutral 
property,  and  are  respected  and  protected  by  the  belli- 
gerents. In  1864,  a  convention  was  held  at  Geneva  for 
the  amelioration  of  the  fate  of  the  wounded  during  military 
campaigns  ;  and  this  compassionate  effort  led  the  series  of 
international  movements,  one  of  the  latest  fruits  of  the 
Christian  spirit,  designed  to  alleviate  the  evils  of  war.  An 
agreement  was  signed  and  adopted  by  the  Swiss  Con- 
federation, the  United  States  of  America,  and  nearly  all 
the  Great  Powers  of  Europe,  having  for  its  object  to 
neutralize  everything  employed  in  the  care  of  the  wounded. 
This  agreement  was  adopted  by  Austria  after  the  war  of 
1866,  and  by  Russia  in  1867.  In  a  conference,  held  at 
'  Blunlschli,  No.  502,  etc. 


CARE   OF   THE    WOUNDED.  345 

Geneva,  in  1868  of  the  principal  European  States,  this 
humane  agreement  was  extended  to  the  care  of  the 
wounded  on  the  sea.  The  duty  of  both  beUigerents  to 
provide,  so  far  as  is  practicable,  even  for  wounded 
enemies,  is  now  a  recognised  feature  of  international  law, 
and  may  be  considered  as  the  first  public  effort  in  the 
history  of  mankind  to  carry  out  one  of  the  foundation 
rules  of  Christianity,  *'  Love  your  enemies." 

The  care  of  the  wounded  in  the  American  civil  war,  and 
the  Franco-German  war,  by  private  associations  of  philan- 
thropic persons  working  in  combination  with  the  govern- 
ments, is  one  of  the  latest  practical  fruits  of  religion,  and 
has  relieved  an  untold  amount  of  human  misery. 

The  Convention  of  St.  Petersburg  in  1868,  entered  into 
on  the  proposal  of  Russia,  bound  the  leading  European 
Powers  to  greater  humanity.  It  limited  the  objects  of  war 
"  to  weaken  the  military  forces  of  the  enemy  : "  that  for 
this  purpose,  "it  is  sufficient  to  disable  the  greatest  possible 
number  of  men  ;  that  this  object  would  be  exceeded  by 
the  employment  of  arms  which  uselessly  aggravate  the 
sufferings  of  disabled  men  or  render  their  death  inevitable ; 
that  the  employment  of  such  arms  would  therefore  be 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  humanity."  The  Great  Powers 
accordingly  renounced  the  employment  of  projectiles, 
explosive  or  charged  with  inflammable  substances,  below 
a  given  weight. 

The  drift  of  all  international  policy  in  regard  to  neutral 
powers  has  been  in  the  peaceful  direction,  and  therefore 
in  the  channels  which  religion  would  suggest.  War  is  as 
much  as  possible  to  be  limited  in  its  evils.  As  we  have 
already  said,  the  abolition  of  privateering  will  lessen  to  an 
immense  extent  the  curses  of  war  to  those  who  are  engaged 
in  peaceful  occupations.  The  customary  notice  now  given 
to  merchant  vessels,  allowing  them  several  w/?eks  to  depart 


346  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

after  the  declaration  of  war,  is  a  reform  in  a  similai 
direction.  The  Rules  of  Paris  (1856)  have  settled  the 
dispute  of  ages  in  favour  of  neutral  powers.  A  free  ship 
carries  a  free  cargo,  and  a  free  cargo  cannot  be  seized  on 
an  enemy's  ship.  Blockade  can  no  longer  annoy  a  whole 
world  of  peaceful  persons,  any  farther  than  it  is  a  real 
blockade. 

The  British  Government,  among  others,  have  been  ready 
to  acknowledge  that  the  progress  of  civilization  has  brought 
about  stricter  obligation  in  regard  to  neutral  supplies  to 
belligerents,!  and  the  duty  of  limiting  war  to  the  smallest 
extent  possible. 

Arbitration. — The  highest  result  of  the  Christian  spirit, 
as  seen  in  public  affairs  in  this  century,  is  the  disposition 
to  settle  disputes  and  prevent  war,  by  arbitration.  The 
great  reform  of  the  Austrage  in  the  Middle  Ages  was 
the  beginning  of  modern  civilization,  or  the  era  in  which 
law  and  courts  took  the  place  of  arms  between  individuals 
and  opposing  cities.  It  is  by  no  means  improbable  that 
the  arbitration  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  also  the  begin- 
ning of  a  higher  Christian  civilisation,  when  international 
law  and  international  courts  shall  take  the  place  of  war 
and  force  in  the  settlement  of  disputes  between  nations. 
As  it  may  be  supposed,  settlement  of  public  disputes  by 
arbitration  is  not  entirely  a  modern  discovery.  While  the 
instincts  of  right  and  justice  existed,  there  must  always 
have  been  a  possibility  of  such  a  settlement.  Among  old 
instances,  is  that  of  Henry  II.  of  England  between  the 
States  of  Castile  and  Navarre — a  decision  contained  in 
twenty-eight  articles  ;  ^  and  another  according  to  the  latest 
proposals   of  international   jurists,  between    the   Emperor 

'  Despatch  of  Earl  Granville  to  the  Prussuin  Government,  SepU 
15th,  1870. 
'  Rytner''  F/vdera,  p.  48. 


ARBITRA  TION.  347 

Frederick  and  certain  cities  of  Lombardy  (1158  A.D.). 
The  question  was  as  to  the  justice  of  his  claims  to  be 
the  successor  of  Augustus  and  Charlemagne,  and  the 
arbitration  was  made  by  four  professors  of  the  School 
of  Bologna.^  Even  as  far  back  as  the  sixteenth  century, 
different  kings  of  European  States  are  found  determining 
difficulties  by  this  reasonable  mode.  In  one  instance 
(1546),  the  Kings  of  France  and  England  settled  a  dis- 
pute in  regard  to  a  large  sum  of  money  by  a  reference 
of  the  matter  to  four  learned  jurisconsults,  an  instance 
of  a  practice  to  become  common,  of  referring  matters  of 
international  law  to  private  students  of  the  science.  Sub- 
jects more  difficult  to  settle  than  differences  about  money 
were  referred  in  that  century  to  arbiters.  The  King  of 
Spain,  and  Switzerland,  decided  a  dispute  in  regard  to  the 
boundaries  of  Franche  Comte  by  arbitration. ^  Even  the 
claims  of  a  sovereign  power  were  referred  to  a  foreign 
decision  ;  as  when  the  Archduke  of  Austria  and  the  Duke 
of  Wiirtemberg,  each  claiming  a  certain  county  (Mont- 
beliard),  laid  the  litigation  before  the  Parliament  of 
Grenoble.^ 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  both  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States,  that  they  resorted  to  arbitration  in  one 
of  their  first  treaties.  After  the  Independence  of  the 
American  Colonies,  difficulties  arose  between  them  and 
the  mother  country  as  to  the  north-eastern  boundary  of 
the  Union.  By  the  Treaty  of  1794,  the  dispute  was  to  be 
finally  decided  by  Commissioners  chosen  in  the  follow- 
ing manner :  one  by  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  another 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate,  and  the  third — in  case  of  disagree- 

*  Wheatotu 

*  L Arbitrage  International^  De  Card,  p.  19. 

*  Jbid. 


348  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

ment  between  the  two — to  be  chosen  by  the  above  Com-i 
inissioners.  Two  other  Commissioners  were  appointed  to 
determine  indemnities  due  the  subjects  of  each  power,  for 
damages.  In  this  treaty  is  undoubtedly  indicated  that 
greatest  practical  exemplification  in  modern  times  of 
humane  principles — the  settlement  by  the  Geneva  Arbitra- 
tion. 

Mediation. — The  famous  Conference  of  Paris  (1856),  as 
we  have  said,  originated  or  confirmed  some  of  the  impor- 
tant reforms  of  modern  international  law.  It  discussed 
another  subject  of  the  deepest  importance  to  the  future  of 
humanity — the  prevention  of  war,  by  the  mediation  and 
collective  decision  and  arbitration  of  the  Great  Powers  of 
Europe.  Article  eighth  required  if  there  arose  between 
the  Sublime  Porte  and  one  or  more  of  the  signatory 
Powers,  a  disagreement  which  threatened  their  peaceful 
relations,  that  these  powers  before  resorting  to  force  should 
apply  to  the  other  contracting  powers  for  their  mediation. 

The  discussion  on  this  advanced  and  reasonable  propo- 
sition showed  that  the  representatives  of  the  Great  Powers 
of  Europe  were  by  no  means  peculiarly  favourable  to  such 
proposals.  The  results  of  the  last  few  years  have  proved 
that  even  this  mild  suggestion,  and  the  wishes  expressed 
by  the  plenipotentiaries,  that  "  All  states  among  whom 
disagreements  arose,  would,  before  appealing  to  arms,  have 
recourse  to  the  good  offices  of  a  friendly  Power,"  were  far 
beyond  the  old  barbaric  habits  of  Europe,  and  produced 
little  practical  effect.  Still  they  indicate  the  ideal  which 
has  arisen  before  the  thoughtful  minds  of  the  age, — the 
constitution  by  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe  of  a  kind  of 
combined  Court  of  Mediation  and  Arbitration,  which 
should  prevent  war  and  even  enforce  its  decisions  in  the 
interest  of  general  peace. 

In  only  two  cases  has  the  mediation  of  the  great  Euro- 


MEDIA  TION.  349 

pean  Powers  since  1856  brought  about  peace:  one  in  tlie 
case  of  Luxembourg  between  France  and  Prussia  in  1867 
— a  mediation  on  the  part  of  England  which  only  delayed 
a  few  years  the  terrible  war  that  afterwards  broke  out. 
The  other  in  1869,  the  case  of  Candia  between  Turkey 
and  Greece — a  settlement  by  the  Great  Powers  which  was 
by  no  means  in  the  permanent  interest  of  either  peace  or 
justice. 

No  mediation  was  able  to  prevent  the  terrible  conflict 
of  1870. 

If  we  refer  back  to  European  history  in  this  century  we 
shall  find  a  number  of  instances,  wherein  the  reasonable 
settlement  of  differences  between  nations  by  arbitration 
has  been  successfully  attempted. 

During  a  war  of  France  with  the  Moors,  certain  English 
merchant  vessels  were  captured  by  the  French  on  the  coast 
of  Portendik,  it  was  asserted  without  sufficient  notice  of 
the  blockade.  The  claims  of  the  English  merchants  injured 
were  referred  by  the  French  and  English  cabinets  to  the 
King  of  Prussia,  and  on  November  9th,  1843,  a  decision 
was  given,  that  a  fine  should  be  paid  to  the  English 
merchants  injured  by  the  French  government : — a  fine 
fixed  afterwards  at  4,770  francs  by  a  mixed  commission. 
A  war  was  thus  avoided  and  justice  done,  to  the  satis- 
faction of  all  parties. 

The  case  of  the  Armstrong,  wherein  an  American  ship 
was  destroyed  in  a  neutral  harbour  (Fayal)  by  an  English 
vessel  of  war,  was  a  delicate  one,  involving  a  claim  on  a 
neutral  power  for  injuries  sustained  within  its  limits,  by 
a  foreign  power.  The  claim  for  damages  on  Portugal  by 
the  United  States  was  referred  by  both  powers  for  settle- 
ment to  the  President  of  the  French  Republic.  The 
arbiter  decided  (Nov,  30th,  1852)  against  the  United 
States ;  the  decision  was  quietly  accepted  and  war  averted. 


350  GESTA    CHRISTL 

In  1862,  a  case  of  arbitration  occurred,  where  national 
pride  might  easily  have  led  to  violent  measures.  The 
officers  of  a  British  ship,  La  Forte,  insulted  a  Brazilian 
sentinel  and  were  thrown  into  prison,  but  soon  afterwards 
released  on  the  demand  of  the  British  vice-consul.  The 
English  Cabinet  demanded  reparation  from  the  Brazilian 
authorities,  and  the  dispute  was  referred  to  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  as  arbiter.  He  decided  in  favour  of  Brazil,  and 
the  decision  was  accepted.^  A  difference  occurred  in  1821 
between  Chili  and  the  United  States  which  aroused  much 
excitement,  and  nearly  brought  on  a  war  between  the  two 
countries.  The  Chilian  vice-admiral  had  violated  the  rule 
of  international  law  which  protects  private  property  on 
land,  especially  that  of  a  neutral  :  he  ordered  the  seizure 
in  the  territory  of  Peru  of  considerable  sums  of  money, 
the  fruit  of  the  sale  of  merchandise  brought  in  by  an 
American  merchantship,  the  brig  Macedonian.  The  United 
States  government  addressed  a  note  to  the  government 
of  Chili,  demanding  the  restitution  of  the  moneys  seized. 
The  ministry  of  Chili  refused  to  accede  to  the  demand. 
Popular  feeling  in  the  United  States  was  in  favour  of  war 
to  enforce  the  claim.  The  dispute  however  was  at  length 
submitted  to  arbitration,  and  that  wise  monarch,  Leo- 
pold I.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  became  again  the  arbiter. 
His  decision  was  not  rendered  till  May,  1863,  and  was 
fully  in  favour  of  the  United  States.  Great  waste  of 
property  and  loss  of  life  were  saved,  and  both  parties  re- 
mained in  amicable  relations.  An  arbitration  between  the 
governments  of  Peru  and  Japan  in  1875,  is  interesting  as 
one  of  the  first  instances  in  which  a  non-Christian  power 
accepted  this  method  of  settlement.  The  case  was  that  of 
the   Maria   Luz,  a  Peruvian   vessel   arrested  in  the   port 

»  De  Card,  p.  59. 


CASES  OF  ARBITRATION.  357 

of  Kanagawa  by  the  Japanese  authorities,  and  was  decided 
by  the  arbiter,  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  in  favour  of  Japan. 

Disputes  as  to  Territory. — Disputes  however  in  regard  to 
claims  on  territory  are  thought  to  be  of  a  more  vital  nature, 
and  not  so  easily  settled  by  umpires.  The  discussion 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  in  regard  to 
rights  of  territory  on  Puget's  Sound  was  one  of  this  nature, 
and  endangered  the  relations  of  the  two  countries  durmg 
a  considerable  period.  A  treaty  however  was  signed  on 
June  1st,  1863,  whereby  the  question  was  referred  to  two 
arbiters,  one  being  named  by  each  government,  who  had 
power  to  name  a  third,  if  they  disagreed.  They  were  not 
even  obliged  to  choose  the  third,  so  fair  and  just  were  their 
views,  and  their  decision,  rendered  September,  1867,  was 
received  by  both  parties  without  protest. 

The  similar  dispute  in  regard  to  the  north-western 
boundary  with  Great  Britain  had  seemed  to  the  American 
government  so  unreasonable,  that  it  had  declined  arbi- 
tration six  times  in  regard  to  it.  The  case  however  was 
finally  referred  for  arbitration  to  the  Emperor  of  Germany, 
and  was  decided  in  favour  of  the  United  States,  October, 
1872  ;  this  decision  closing  a  century-long  dispute  on 
boundaries. 

A  difference  occurred  also  between  Great  Britain  and 
Portugal,  relative  to  the  rights  of  each  government  to  the 
island  of  Balama,  on  the  western  coast  of  Africa.  The 
matter  was  referred  in  1869  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  as  arbiter  :  his  decision  was  in  favour  of  Portugal 
and  was  received  by  England  without  opposition. 

The  Alabama. — The  great  affair  of  the  Alabama  and  of 
the  injuries  inflicted  by  the  rebel  cruisers  is  too  fresh  to 
need  much  recapitulation.  The  American  people  felt  itself 
profoundly  injured  and  wounded  in  the  civil  war,  by  the 
tacit  permission  given  by  the  British  government  for  the 


352 


GESTA    CHRISTI. 


manning  and  fitting  out  of  the  rebel  cruisers,  and  the  con- 
nivance of  numbers  of  the  English  people  in  this  violation 
of  neutrality.  The  injuries  inflicted  by  these  vessels,  and 
especially  by  the  Alabama,  upon  American  commerce,  were 
enormous.  Indirectly  the  American  commercial  marine 
was  almost  annihilated  by  them.  So  bitter  was  the  re- 
sentment throughout  the  Union  against  what  seemed  a 
flagrant  violation  of  the  rules  of  justice  and  fair  dealing 
on  the  part  of  the  British  government,  that  popular  feeling 
was  entirely  ready  for  war,  and  only  the  prudence  of  the 
American  authorities,  already  sufiiciently  burdened  by  the 
immense  civil  struggle,  restrained  the  passions  of  the  people. 

The  correspondence  with  Earl  Russell  of  so  cool  a 
diplomat  as  Mr.  Adams  shows  the  degree  to  which  feelings 
on  each  side  were  aroused.  The  British  minister,  after 
endeavouring  to  justify  the  action  of  his  government 
towards  the  rebel  cruisers,  went  so  far  in  his  despatch  of 
Aug.  2nd,  1865,  as  to  declare  that  the  British  government, 
having  fulfilled  all  legal  obligations,  would  never  consent 
to  refer  the  contest  to  arbitration. 

Nor  did  the  close  of  the  struggle  and  the  success  of 
the  Union  diminish  the  bitterness  of  feeling  against  the 
British  Government  throughout  the  North.  The  ministry, 
however,  of  both  Powers  appear  not  to  have  given  up 
ill  hopes  of  ultimately  settling  the  difficulty  by  a  recourse 
to  measures  of  justice  and  right  reason.  The  American 
ambassador,  Reverdy  Johnson,  submitted  a  proposition  for 
arbitration  to  the  British  government,  which  was  readily 
accepted.  But  he  had  accompanied  or  preceded  it  by 
public  utterances,  so  far  from  expressing  the  real  opinions 
of  the  American  people  on  the  gravity  of  their  wrongs, 
that  they  created  an  extreme  opposition  to  the  proposal 
in  the  United  States.  The  reference  to  arbitration  was 
rejected  by  the  American  Senate  by  54  votes  to  i. 


THE  ALABAMA   ARBITRATION.  353 

The  President,  in  communicating  this  decision  to  the 
American  minister,  declared  the  conditions  of  the  proposal 
unsatisfactory,  but  affirmed  his  readiness  at  the  proper 
time  to  meet  this  question  on  a  friendly  footing.  The 
dispute  seemed  thus  as  far  from  settlement  as  ever. 

It  is  fortunate  that  in  each  country  there  is  a  large 
body  of  persons  somewhat  guided  by  Christian  principles, 
whose  opinions  exercise  considerable  influence  on  public 
men.  Under  any  popular  excitement,  the  voice  of  reason 
and  religion  is  not  heard  ;  but  as  soon  as  this  dies  away, 
the  statesmen  are  more  or  less  governed  by  the  Christian 
belief  of  the  nation. 

It  was  not  till  January,  1871,  that  an  offer  of  arbitration 
was  again  made — this  time  by  the  British  Government. 
The  offer  was  accepted,  and  a  mixed  commission  was 
formed  of  five  Englishmen  and  five  Americans,  to  frame 
a  tribunal  of  arbitration.  This  tribunal  (May  8)  was  com- 
prised of  five  members,  to  be  chosen  respectively  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  the  Queen  of  England,  the 
King  of  Italy,  the  President  of  the  Swiss  Confederation, 
and  the  Emperor  of  Biazil.  The  Commission  were  to 
meet  at  Geneva.  It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  the  treaty 
in  detail. 

The  Treaty  of  Washington  was  ratified  on  May  8th, 
1 87 1,  by  the  American  Senate  by  a  large  majority,  and 
approved  by  the  British  Parliament,  though  with  many 
objections.  Earl  Grey  said  justly  of  this  treaty  in  a  pub- 
lic banquet,  that  it  wouid  exercise  an  incalculable  influence 
on  the  future  of  the  world  in  procuring  for  it  the  first  of 
earthly  blessings — peace. 

The  Commission  met  December  15th,  1871,  at  Geneva, 
and  on  the  14th  September,  1872,  rendered  its  decision, 
condemning  England  to  pay  to  the  United  States  the  sum 
of  $15,000,000,  as  indemnity  for  the  direct  injuries  done 


354  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

to  its  commerce,  by  three  of  the  Confederate  cruisers. 
The  British  Commissioner  alone  refused  to  sign  the 
sentence. 

The  English  Government,  after  some  objections  tc  the 
interpretation  of  the  rules,  accepted  the  decision,  and  paid 
the  indemnity. 

The  Geneva  Arbitration  of  1872  may  be  fairly  held  as 
one  of  the  great  steps  in  modern  progress  towards  right 
reason  in  the  settlement  of  international  difficulties.  It 
is  true  that  its  influence  for  the  time  is  somewhat  dimi- 
nished by  the  disgraceful  delays  and  disputes  in  regard  to 
the  distribution  of  the  indemnity  among  claimants  in  the 
United  States.  Then  the  settlement,  since,  of  the  fishery 
question  with  Great  Britain  by  an  arbitration  which 
seemed  to  the  American  people  unfair  and  unjust  to  their 
interests,  has  for  the  time  weakened  the  power  of  this 
method  of  settlement  in  the  United  State.s,  as  did  the 
results  of  the  Geneva  arbitration  in  England.  But  these 
are  only  passing  objections.  The  two  leading  commer- 
cial powers  of  the  world,  in  a  time  of  great  bitterness 
of  popular  feeling,  and  when  one  side  felt  itself  deeply 
injured,  under  circumstances  which  in  all  past  history 
would  have  been  thought  to  justify  war,  have  deliberately 
controlled  passion  and  submitted  their  differences  to  the 
most  impartial  earthly  arbiters.  This  is  one  of  the  first 
prominent  instances  in  history  of  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity on  the  relations  of  nations. 

The  sketch  we  have  given  of  different  cases  of  arbitration 
is  a  list  of  the  "victories  of  peace."  It  is  well  completed 
by  the  most  momentous  of  all — the  Geneva  settlement. 

In  some  future  and  better  age,  when  Christianity  no 
longer  touches  only  the  surfice  of  society  but  has  imbued 
whole  races  of  men  and  affected  the  relations  of  govern- 
ments, it  will  not  be  battles  which  constitute  history  or 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WAR.  355 

the  record  of  fields  of  blood  which  makes  a  nation's 
glory,  but  the  historian  will  delight  to  chronicle  these  first 
gleams  of  a  higher  civilization,  when  reason  was  taking 
the  place  of  passion,  and  law  of  force,  and  Christianity 
of  hatred  and  revenge  in  the  relation  of  one  nation  to 
another. 

The  question  is  often  put,  whether  arbitration  can  ever 
become  universal,  or  whether  the  principles  of  Christianity 
can  ever  imbue  whole  peoples  as  they  have  inspired  in- 
dividuals. 

Looking  at  what  this  Religion  has  done  with  a  few  indi- 
viduals, we  may  judge  of  the  far  future  with  mankind,  and, 
from  a  few  traces  now  in  international  laws  and  customs, 
we  may  fairly  infer  what  it  may  accomplish  after  ages  of 
influence  upon  nations  and  governments. 

We  have  beheld  it  redeeming  the  lot  of  the  prisoner 
of  war  from  one  exposed  to  massacre  and  slavery  to  that 
of  the  captive  humanely  treated  under  modern  international 
customs  ;  we  have  seen  it  ministering  to  the  wants  of  the 
wounded  and  protecting  all  that  belongs  to  their  care  even 
in  the  army  of  an  enemy.  We  have  found  it  prohibiting 
even  the  killing  of  an  unarmed  enemy,  forbidding  all  use- 
less destruction  of  life  and  property,  all  injury  of  women 
or  defenceless  persons,  all  objectless  wasting  of  fields 
and  fruits.  We  have  seen  it  doing  away  with  piracy  and 
privateering,  with  the  plunder  of  philanthropic  and  scien- 
tific buildings,  with  all  private  booty,  and  even  urging  the 
protection  of  private  property  on  the  sea. 

What  but  the  influence  of  the  "  Religion  of  Love,"  direct 
or  indirect,  has  done  so  much  to  limit  the  evils  of  war,  and 
to  confine  them  to  the  belligerents  ? 

It  is  true  war  is  still  the  gigantic  evil  of  history — the 
one  great  travesty  of  the  faith  which  leading  nations 
profess.     Yet  the  spirit  of  this  Faith  has  won  its  greatest 


35^  GESTA    CHR/S2V. 

triumph  in  finally  introducing  arbitration  between  dispu- 
ting nations. 

There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  in  the  distant  future 
arbitration  in  some  form  will  be  the  great  method  of 
settling  international  differences.  For  the  coming  few 
centuries  it  will  probably  only  be  applicable  to  exceptional 
cases,  when  national  pride  and  passion  are  not  too  much 
aroused.  But  the  increasing  power  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment and  of  right  reason  among  men,  and  it  may  be  the 
growing  influence  of  the  labouring  classes,  who  suffer  most 
from  war,  will  force  cabinets  more  and  more  to  this  mode 
of  settlement. 

If  we  look  at  the  progress  in  the  slow  abolition  of  "Pri- 
vate War  "  in  Europe,  we  shall  conclude  that  in  some  form 
the  civilized  world  will  go  through  a  similar  change  and 
development,  and  rise  out  of  the  comparatively  low  moral 
condition  of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  Europe  rose  out  of 
the  barbarism  of  the  thirteenth.  The  probable  course  of 
development  will  be  first  in  the  Great  Powers  of  the  world 
agreeing  beforehand  when  a  given  treaty  is  framed,  that 
any  difference  in  relation  to  that  particular  treaty  shall  be 
determined  by  arbitration.  The  postal  treaties  of  the 
United  States  with  foreign  powers  contain  a  clause  of  this 
character.  In  1853  the  American  senate  adopted  a  reso- 
lution designed  to  accomplish  this  humane  purpose,  to  the 
effect  that  the  President  should  insert  in  all  future  treaties 
an  article  binding  the  contracting  parties  to  submit  all 
differences  between  them  to  impartial  arbiters.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1873,  a  resolution  even  more  extended,  by  Senator 
Sumner,  was  presented  in  the  senate  requiring  the  govern- 
ment to  recommend  the  adoption  of  arbitration  in  its  rela- 
tions with  other  nations.  The  greater  part  of  the  European 
treaties  of  commerce  and  the  international  postal  treaties 
contain  provisions  relating  to  arbitration,  in  case  of  dis- 


INTERNATIONAL  CODES,  357 

agreement  as  to  the  treaties.  As  we  shall  show  later,  the 
arbitration  clause  has  been  recommended  to  the  atten- 
tion  of  ministers  by  the  votes  of  the  Belgian,  Dutch,  and 
Swedish  chambers.  The  habit  of  arbitration  will  thus  be 
introduced  in  international  relations.  And  in  all  great 
legal  reforms  habits  have  a  marvellous  power.  At  first 
it  could  only  be  employed  in  comparatively  unimportant 
disputes,  but  gradually  it  would  come  into  play  in  more 
vital  matters. 

The  next  great  step  in  the  application  of  right  reason  to 
international  affairs  will  be  the  formation  of  international 
codes  or  rules  of  law,  which  will  affect  the  opinion  and  the 
practice  of  the  civilized  world.  We  have  already  seen 
the  great  influence  of  Grotius  in  softening  the  severities 
of  war,  and  binding  different  peoples  in  more  merciful 
relations.  It  is  a  matter  deeply  to  be  regretted  that 
American  and  British  publicists  since  his  time  have  done 
so  little  to  express  Christian  and  humane  ideals  in  their 
treatises  on  international  law.  In  a  science  which  rests 
so  much  on  opinion  and  the  principles  of  equity,  each 
author  might  have  advanced  it  almost  as  Grotius  did,  by 
urging  all  practicable  principles  of  Christianity.  The  new 
Codes  of  which  we  have  spoken  are  both  great  steps  in 
advance,  and  must  influence  all  future  relations  of  nations. 
Another  project  of  an  international  code  by  an  American 
publicist,  D.  D.  Field,  has  attracted  much  attention,  from 
its  just  proposals.  It  will  be  a  long  period  before  these 
merciful  essays  towards  a  form  of  law  which  shall  govern 
all  the  civilized  world  will  be  accepted.  Yet  they  make  a 
foundation  for  the  better  future.  The  opinion  of  the  world 
already  has  an  immense  power  over  all  nations.  And 
these  careful  embodiments  of  its  humane  feelings  and  ideas 
must  add  to  this  power. 

Courts  of  Arbitration. — But  the  final  step  towards  the 


358  GESTA    CHRIST/, 

"  Universal  Peace  "  so  long  dreamed  of  by  moralists,  will 
be  the  formation  of  international  courts  of  arbitration, 
vested  with  the  powers  of  courts  by  all  the  great  nations. 
It  is  true  that  the  times  are  not  ripe  for  this  as  yet,  and 
may  not  be  for  many  centuries.  In  1873,  Mr.  Richard 
presented  a  motion  to  the  British  Parliament,  only  indi- 
cating an  approach  towards  such  a  reform,  to  the  effect 
that  the  Queen  be  humbly  requested  to  instruct  her  Mini- 
ster of  Foreign  Affairs  to  enter  into  communication  with 

o 

foreign  powers,  having  for  his  object  to  ameliorate  inter- 
national law,  and  to  institute  a  system  of  permanent  and 
general  international  arbitration. 

Mr.  Gladstone  and  other  orators  expressed  many  doubts 
of  the  project :  but  the  motion  passed  (July  9th)  after 
much  discussion,  and  on  the  nth  the  Queen  replied  to 
it  in  conciliatory  words  which  guardedly  expressed  much 
sympathy  in  the  project,  without  committing  the  govern- 
ment to  fixed  promises. 

In  the  Italian  Parliament,  Sig.  Mancini  presented  (24th 
August,  1873)  a  somewhat  similar  motion  to  Mr.  Richard's, 
except  that  he  confined  arbitration  more  particularly  to 
disputes  on  commercial  interests  or  similar  subjects,  and  he 
would  introduce  into  all  treaties  a  clause  referring  disputes 
on  them  to  arbiters,  and  pursue  the  previous  policy  of 
Italy  in  rendering  uniform  and  obligatory,  the  rules  of 
"  private  international  law."  This  moderate  position  was 
well  received  in  Italy. 

Other  States  followed  this  example.  The  Lower  Cham- 
ber of  the  Kingdom  of  Holland  (Nov.  27th,  1874)  passed 
a  motion  of  a  similar  character,  and  urging  arbitration 
for  all  international  difficulties.  The  Belgian  House  of 
Representatives  adopted  a  similar  resolution  unanimously 
in  favour  of  arbitration  (Feb.  17th,  1875).  The  Swedish 
Second  Chamber  voted  by  a  large  majority  an  address  tg 


COURTS   OF  ARBITRATION.  359 

the  king,  praying  for  efforts  towards  a  permanent  tribunal 
of  arbitration  between  nations. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  many  public  bodies  in  Europe 
and  America  have  seriously  considered  this  benevolent 
project.  It  is  well  known  that  eminent  individuals  in 
advance  of  their  age,  have  long  urged  it  as  the  greatest 
reform  needed  among  nations.  Grotius,  as  we  have  shown, 
contemplated  it  as  a  possibility.  Leibnitz,  William  Penn, 
Bentham  and  many  others  argued  for  it  ;  Kant's  project 
for  a  universal  peace  through  arbitration,  and  the  similar 
views  of  the  Abbe  de  St.  Pierre  and  of  Rousseau,  are  too 
well  known  to  need  recapitulation. 

These  humane  purposes  and  projects  took  a  definite  form 
in  the  International  Conference  of  Brussels  in  1874,  called 
especially  at  the  request  of  the  Russian  government.  The 
invitation  to  this  Conference  contains  words  worth  citing. 

"The  more  that  solidarity,"  says  Prince  Gortscnakoff,  "becomes 
developed  which  tends  in  these  times  to  bring  together  and  to  unite 
nations  as  one  family,  the  more  their  military  organisation  tends  to 
give  to  their  wars  the  character  of  conflicts  between  armed  nations, 
liie  more  necessary  does  it  become  to  determine  with  greater  pre- 
cision the  laws  and  usages  admissible  in  a  state  of  war,  in  order  to 
limit  the  consequences  and  diminish  the  calamities  attendant  upon  it, 
so  far  us  may  be  possible  or  desirable." ' 

The  fifty-six  articles  which  were  especially  to  be  con- 
sidered by  the  Conference  embraced  most  of  the  points 
io  thoroughly  treated  in  the  American  Instructions  and 
the  Bluntschli  Code,  The  Conference  does  not  seem  to 
have  produced  much  effect,  perhaps  partly  from  the  want 
of  sympathy  in  its  objects  by  the  British  government,* 
and  partly  because  the  Great  Powers  have  not  reached  the 

*  Despatch  of  Prince  Gortschakoff,  March  4th,  1874. 

'  Despatch  of  Lord  Derby  to  Lord  Loftus,  June  20th,  1875. 


36o  GESTA    CHRIS  Tl. 

point  of  moral  advance  in  which  these  reforms  seem  in* 
dispensable. 

The  formation  of  an"  Institute  for  the  Codification  and 
Improvement  of  International  Law "  in  Europe  and  the 
United  States,  which  has  already  urged  the  most  advanced 
reforms  through  eminent  authorities,  is  another  evidence 
of  the  power  of  Christian  opinion  on  this  great  subject. 

The  main  objections  to  the  formation  of  a  permanent 
Court  of  Arbitration  with  executive  powers  furnished  by 
each  nation,  are  undoubtedly  the  fear  that  such  an  authority 
would  threaten  the  independence  of  single  States,  and  that 
the  execution  of  its  decisions  would  only  create  new  wars, 
instead  of  abolishing  old.  But  it  would  not  be  difficult  to 
form  a  judicial  authority  with  limited  powers,  which  would 
only  have  the  right  to  decide  and  act  upon  definite  ques- 
tions, such  as  do  not  affect  the  independence  of  a  State. 
Each  nation  would  yield  up  certain  of  its  rights  to  a  power 
of  which  it  was  a  part,  in  the  interest  of  general  peace. 
Of  course,  great  care  would  be  necessary  to  prevent  the 
Court  from  becoming  corrupt  or  an  agent  itself  of  tyranny 
and  injustice.  These  objections,  though  formidable,  do  not 
seem  insurmountable.  Almost  as  great  were  overcome  in 
constituting  the  Federal  Court  of  the  United  States.  The 
interest  of  all  nations  is  especially  in  peace.  And  many 
temporary  annoyances  might  be  endured,  in  a  certain 
yielding  of  powers,  for  the  sake  of  so  great  a  blessing. 
The  enormous  expense  of  large  standing  armies  would  be 
in  part  saved,  as  each  power  would  need  only  to  contribute 
its  quota  to  the  executive  forces  of  the  International  Court. 
Even  questions  which  are  supposed  to  affect  the  honour  or 
independence  of  a  State,  would  often  come  before  such  a 
Court,  not  for  executive  decision  but  for  its  opinion.  And 
an  opinion  from  sucli  an  authority  would  have  an  incal- 
culable  effect  on   any   civilized    power.      Even   the  mere 


PEACE    THE  IDEAL   OE  CHRIST.  361 

stopping,  before  the  rush  to  arms,  to  hear  an  impartial 
judgment  on  the  quarrel  would  exert  a  profound  influence 
on  the  coming  belHgerents.  The  voice  of  reason  and  re- 
ligion would  thus  have  a  chance  to  be  heard. 

The  full  christianization  of  international  law  awaits  the 
slow  action  of  christianized  public  opinion.  But  much 
may  be  done,  as  much  as  has  been  done,  to  humanize  the 
relations  of  nations,  to  soften  the  asperities  of  war,  to  lessen 
its  causes  and  finally  to  prevent  it.  If  the  Christian  Church 
throughout  the  world  were  finally  aroused  to  its  duties  in 
this  matter,  and  were  aware  how  far  behind  the  precepts  of 
the  Master  His  nominal  followers  are,  there  would  long  ago 
have  been  a  public  opinion  in  Europe  and  America  which 
would  have  rendered  any  war  difficult  if  not  impossible. 

Peace  among  all  men  and  all  nations  is  the  ideal  pre- 
sented by  Christ.  And  by  one  class  of  means  or  other, 
when  at  length  His  teachings  have  thoroughly  permeated 
mankind,  this  ideal  will  be  attained. 

Outside  of  the  nominally  Christian  nations,  there  is  no 
international  law.  The  Turks  appear  to  have  had  little 
idea  of  it  till  instructed  by  European  nations.  The 
Koran's  teachings  tended  in  the  very  opposite  direction, 
and  made  war  the  natural  condition  towards  non-Moham- 
medan races,  and  treachery  justifiable  towards  an  "  infidel." 
The  Mohammedan  peoples  in  the  north  of  Africa  lived 
in  a  constant  state  of  hostility  with  all  foreigners.  The 
Chinese,  with  all  their  advancement  in  arts  and  sciences, 
seem  never  to  have  thought  of  any  code  of  humanity  and 
justice  towards  foreign  nations. 

The  Japanese  have  indeed  recently  made  efforts  to  in- 
troduce the  international  law  known  to  the  Christian 
nations,  to  their  own  people  ;  and  one  proposed  code  ^  at 
least  has  been  translated. 

'  D.  D.  Field's, 


362  GESTA    CHRIS  TI. 

No  Buddhist,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  has  written  on 
this  topic,  nor  does  a  Buddhistic  code  of  laws  and  customs 
between  different  peoples  exist. 

Nor,  as  we  have  shown,  does  international  law  owe  much 
to  Greek  culture  or  to  Roman  law.  The  first  general  tinge 
of  humanity  in  the  world's  relations,  mercy  to  the  wounded 
and  helpless,  the  softening  the  rugged  face  of  war,  the 
binding  different  nations  in  a  certain  bond  (feeble  though 
it  be)  of  brotherhood,  the  disposition  to  refer  injuries  to 
arbitration  rather  than  violence — these  are  the  Gcsta 
CJiristi.  And  when  at  length  Cicero's  dream  ^  shall  be 
realized,  and  there  no  longer  be  one  law  at  Athens  and 
another  at  Rome,  but  one  universal  law  for  all  nations 
and  times,  simple,  eternal  and  immutable,  "  the  ruler  and 
deity  of  all  men," — even  the  law  of  humanity  and  justice, 
then  will  the  great  law-giver  and  embodiment  of  it  be  the 
"  Son  of  Man,"  whose  words  shall  then  guide  and  inspire 
nations,  as  now  individuals. 

*  Fragm.  de  Rep.,  lib.  iii.  3t« 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

SLAVE  TRADE  AND   SLAVERY   IN    MODERN   TIMES. 

Slavery,  as  we  have  previously  shown,  had  mainly  dis- 
appeared in  Europe  at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
peculiar  influence  of  the  Christian  religion  in  tcacliing  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  and  the  priceless  value  of  each  human 
being,  had  everywhere  undermined  it ;  the  formation  of  free 
communes  in  the  large  towns  had  given  it  a  deadly  blow. 
One  effect  of  the  crusades  had  been  to  break  up  classes 
and  loosen  the  bonds  of  slavery,  and  thus  under  various 
forces,  but  roost  of  all  the  moral,  slavery  had  given  place 
to  serfdom,  and  serfdom  itself  had  in  many  countries 
almost  passed  away. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  still  a  trade  in 
Mohammedan  captives  among  the  Italian  states,  and  here 
and  there  in  such  countries  as  Greece,  the  enslavement  of 
whites,  and  slaves  were  occasionally  held  in  various  civilized 
states.  International  custom  recognised  also  the  right  of 
enslaving  prisoners  of  war.  But  slavery,  under  the  power 
of  strong  moral  forces,  was  virtually  disappearing,  when 
two  momentous  events  occurred  which  overbore  the  moral 
power  working  in  European  society,  and  let  loose  a  swarm 
of  curses  on  the  world  such  as  mankind  had  scarce  ever 
known.  One  was  the  first  voyaging  to  a  populated  and 
barbarous  coast  where  human  beings  were  a  familiar  article 

of  traffic ;  and  the  other,  the  discovery  of  a  new  world, 

363 


364  GESTA    CHRIS  TI. 

where    mines   of    glittering   wealth    were   open,    proviJed 
labour  could  be  imported  to  work  them. 

The  introduction  of  negro  slaves  into  Europe  in  the 
fifteenth  century  would  have  been  of  little  account,  had 
America  never  been  discovered.  They  would  have  been 
merely  ornaments  of  wealthy  houses,  but  as  labourers 
would  have  been  speedily  vanquished  in  the  struggle  with 
the  peasantry  of  Europe.  In  the  West  Indies  and 
America,  however,  they  entered  into  competition  with  a 
weak  race  already  disappearing — the  native  Indians  ;  and 
they  became  tools  of  a  powerful  and  covetous  people, 
who  used  them  to  extract  sudden  wealth  from  the 
"round  or  the  mine.  Hence  arose  the  most  dreadful 
curse  which  has  perhaps  ever  afflicted  humanity — the 
African  slave  trade.  Almost  all  other  human  ills  have 
their  mitigating  features.  War  is  a  struggle  where  heroism 
and  courage  and  effort  may  come  into  play,  where  men 
stake  all  on  a  last  effort,  and  expect  wounds  and  death 
if  defeat  come.  Even  women  and  children  may  take  with 
resignation  that  which  follows  the  misfortune  of  those 
nearest  them,  and  which  belongs  to  the  chances  of  war. 
Captivity,  too,  may  not  always  be  to  them  worse  than  their 
former  condition. 

The  vices  of  men  bring  with  them  a  certain  degree  of 
pleasure,  and  their  penalties  are  in  part  self-inflicted. 
Disease  and  pestilence  and  earthquake  seem  to  convey 
calamities  as  if  from  upper  powers,  and  are  borne  by 
multitudes  of  men  in  common.  They  appear  unavoidable 
and  necessary. 

But  when  one  thinks  that  during  four  hundred  years, 
men  and  women  and  children  were  torn  from  all  whom  they 
knew,  and  sold  on  the  coast  of  Africa  to  foreign  traders  ; 
that  they  were  chained  between  low  decks  so  that  there 
vas  not  even  room  to   rise,  and   thus  in   filth  and  disease 


THE  "" MIDDLE  PASSAGE »  365 

and  loneliness,  the  dead  often  chained  to  the  living,  made 
that  horrible  "  middle  passage,"  each  morning  the  corpses 
being  thrown  into  the  sea,  the  living  when  temporarily 
released,  plunging  into  the  ocean  as  the  least  of  sufferings, 
or  the  sick  dying  from  heart-ache  and  home-sickness ; 
that  durmg  all  these  hundred  years  the  sighs  and  groans 
and  prayers  of  these  wretched  creatures  rose  to  heaven  ; 
and  when  they  reached  the  New  World,  they  were  consigned 
to  only  a  less  degree  of  misery  in  the  mines,  or  under 
the  lash  in  the  cane  and  rice-fields  ;  that  many  millions 
were  thus  treated,  and  out  of  three  and  a  quarter  millions 
of  negroes,  according  to  an  impartial  historian,^  thus  im- 
ported to  various  colonies  in  a  century  by  Great  Britain, 
250,000  were  thrown  into  the  sea  on  the  passage — one  may 
well  feel  that  this  is  the  great  crime  of  history,  the  one 
before  which  all  others  pale  in  enormity  and  wickedness. 
It  would  seem  at  first  sight  as  if  such  gigantic  injustices 
and  cruelties  could  not  possibly  happen  where  Christianity 
had  the  slightest  influence.  As  Montesquieu,  with  his 
characteristic  irony,  says  ;  "  Negroes  could  not  be  human 
beings,  for  if  they  were,  the  whole  of  Christendom  would 
have  united  in  a  league  to  put  down  the  African  slave 
trade." 

Worse  still,  the  guilt  of  this  great  crime  rests  on  the 
Christian  Church  as  an  organized  body.  It  is  true  that 
many  Popes  thundered  against  slavery,  and  Church  Coun- 
cils proclaimed  emancipation  ;  but  it  is  no  less  true  that 
one  fatal  error  of  the  Church  stimulated  the  traffic  in 
negroes  and  upheld  slavery — the  belief  that  the  conversion 
of  the  stolen  black  would  outweigh  the  sin  of  man-stealing 
or  slavery.  It  is  not  true,  though  often  repeated,  that  one 
of  the  most  devoted  followers  of  the  Church  and  one  of  the 
mc^st  humane  of  men,  Las  Casas,  first  introduced  negro 

*  Bancroft. 


366  GESTA   CHRISII. 

slavery  into  the  New  World,  The  importation  had  begun 
before  his  time  under  Charles  V.  He  did  indeed  recom- 
mend the  first  large  importation,  in  order  to  relieve  his 
beloved  Indians  ;  but  he  lived  bitterly  to  repent  his  mis- 
take. His  Church,  however,  supported  by  all  its  influence 
both  the  royal  grants  for  purchasing  negroes,  and  all  the 
subsequent  policy  by  which  slavery  was  planted  and  per- 
petuated in  Spanish  America.  The  dark  stain  of  African 
slave  trade  and  of  human  bondage  on  a  new  continent  is 
for  ever  on  the  garments  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
It  is  a  singular  travesty  on  the  ''  Religion  of  Love " 
that  the  Spanish  government  during  two  centuries  con- 
cluded more  than  ten  treaties  in  "the  name  of  the  most 
Holy  Trinity "  (el  nombre  del  Santissima  Trinidad), 
which  authorized  the  sale  of  more  than  500,000  human 
beings,  and  received  from  it  a  tax  of  over  fifty  million 
livres. 

Nor  docs  the  Protestant  Church  escape.  The  first  ship 
which  sailed  from  England  in  1562,  under  Sir  John 
Hawkins,  on  the  diabolical  errand  of  buying  human 
beings  in  Africa,  and  selling  them  in  the  West  Indies, 
bore  in  a  similar  travesty  the  sacred  name  of  Jesus. 
Henceforth  for  about  a  century  and  a  half,  a  Protestant 
power — Great  Britain — led  in  that  most  shameless  traffic, 
— the  plundering  one  continent  of  human  beings  to  sell 
them  as  slaves  in  another.  During  all  these  years  various 
English  monarchs  encouraged  this  trade.  Elizabeth  her- 
self, the  pillar  of  the  Protestant  Church,  knighted  Hawkins 
for  his  successes,  and  his  crest  became  a  manacled  negro. 
Bishops  and  clergy  favoured  it  ;  Parliament  supported  it 
by  repeated  resolutions  and  acts  ;  the  judges  approved  it, 
and  even  so  distinguished  a  jurist  as  Lord  Eldon  had  the 
presumption  to  say  (in  1807)  in  parliament,  "It  (the  slave 
trade)  has  been  sanctioned  by  parliament,  where  sat  juris- 


THE  SLAVE   TRADE.  367 

consults  the  most  wise,  theologians  the  most  enlightened, 
statesmen  the  most  eminent." 

It  is  true  that  the  Protestant  Church,  as  a  Church,  is 
not  so  guilty  in  the  encouragement  of  the  traffic  as  the 
Catholic,  but  on  the  other  hand,  its  followers  had  less 
excuse.  They  did  not  profess  to  believe  that  "  the  end 
justified  the  means."  They  knew  they  were  sinning 
against  both  God  and  man  in  their  horrible  trade. 

TJie  Slave  Trade. — The  first  considerable  cargo  of  slaves 
seems  to  have  been  brought  in  1444,  under  Prince  Henry 
of  Portugal,  by  a  Portuguese  captain,  from  the  coast  of 
Guinea  to  the  country  near  Lagos  ;  they  numbered  235. 
Other  cargoes  were  brought,  but  the  trade  began  to  fall 
ofi",  and  would  have  undoubtedly  ended  but  for  the  dis- 
covery of  America.  It  is  not  known  who  was  the  person 
in  whose  mind  the  diabolical  inspiration  was  first  sug- 
gested, to  supplant  the  weak  race  of  the  Indians  in 
Hispaniola  and  on  the  main  land  by  the  vigorous  African 
slaves.  Charles  V.  had  granted  licenses  for  this  trade  to 
various  persons  before,  in  part  at  the  suggestion  of  Las 
Casas,  he  granted  a  monopoly  to  Gov.  de  Bresa  in  1517, 
to  import  4,000  negroes  during  eight  years  into  the 
Spanish  colonies  ;  this  was  renewed  with  a  smaller  num- 
ber in  1523,  but  in  1542  the  monopoly  covered  23,000 
slaves,  and  in  1542  2,000  were  imported  annually  into 
Hispaniola  alone.  In  155 1  licenses  were  offered  for  sale 
in  Spain,  giving  authority  to  import  17,000  negro  slaves. 
Slaves  were  first  carried  to  St.  Domingo  in  15 10,  and  to 
Cuba  in  1521.  Many  treaties  were  made  by  the  Spanish 
government  with  different  companies  to  authorize  this 
odious  traffic  ;  and,  so  far  had  the  idea  of  a  common 
humanity  died  out,  that  one  Spanish  treaty  with  a  Por- 
tuguese Company  of  Guinea  in  1700,  irtipulated  to  furnish 


368  GESTA    CHRISTT. 

"  10,000  tons  *  of  negroes,"  and  another  between  Great 
Britain  and  Spain  stipulated  to  import  4,800  "  Indian 
pieces  "  (piezas  de  Indias),  as  if  they  were  pieces  of  mer- 
chandise. This  was  the  notorious  provision  in  the  cele- 
brated Treaty  of  Utrecht,  which  gave  Great  Britain  as 
one  of  the  prizes  of  a  successful  war,  a  monopoly  in  the 
slave  trade  for  thirty  years  from  17 13  to  1743  ;  and  during 
this  period  the  British  government  agreed  to  import  144,000 
negroes  of  both  sexes  into  Spanish  America  at  33^  piastres 
per  head.- 

As  we  have  said,  the  British  slave  trade  began  under 
Queen  Elizabeth.  In  1662,  Charles  II.  granted  an  exclu- 
sive right  to  Queen  Catharine  and  others  to  carry  on  the 
trade,  they  stipulating  to  supply  the  West  India  islands 
with  3,000  negroes  annually.  In  1695,  the  House  of 
Commons  resolved  that  "for  the  better  supply  of  the 
plantations,  all  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain  should  have 
liberty  to  trade  with  Africa  for  negroes  with  such  limits 
as  Parliament  should  prescribe."  Certain  statutes  of 
William  declared  that  "the  trade  was  highly  beneficial 
and  advantageous  to  the  kingdom,  and  to  the  plantations 
and  colonies  thereunto  belonging,"  and  opened  it  to  all. 
In  1708  the  House  of  Commons  declared  by  the  report 
of  a  Committee,  that  "the  trade  was  important  and  ought 
to  be  free  and  open  to  all  the  Queen's  subjects  trading  to 
Great  Britain,"     In  1729  the  House  of  Commons  resolved 

'  Dies  mil  toneladas  de  negros, 

2  "  First  then  to  procure  by  this  means  a  mutual  and  reciprocal 
advantage  to  the  subjects  and  sovereigns  of  both  crowns,  our  British 
Majesty  does  offer  and  undertake  for  the  persons  whom  she  shall 
name  and  appoint,  that  they  shall  oblige  and  charge  themselves  with 
the  West  Indies  of  America,  belonging  to  his  Catholic  majesty,  in  the 
said  thirty  years,  .  .  .  viz.,  144,000  negroes,  Piezas  de  Indias,  in 
eacli  of  the  said  thirty  years,  etc."  (Assiento  Treaty  b<itweeD  Great 
Britain  and  Spain,  1 713. — Coll.  of  Treaties,  3,  375). 


THE  SLAVE   TRADE.  369 

that  the  trade  in  slaves  should  be  open  to  all,  and  that  it 
ought  not  to  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  forts  on  the 
African  coast  which  protected  it,  and  that  an  appropriation 
ought  to  be  made  for  the  maintenance  of  such  forts.  Still 
other  statutes  under  George  II.  (1749)  declared  the  slave 
trade  very  advantageous  to  Great  Britain,  and  necessary 
for  the  supplying  the  plantations  and  colonies  with  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  negroes  at  reasonable  rates.  In  a  well- 
known  case  referred  to  the  judges,  Lord  Chief  Justice 
Holt  and  eight  other  judges  showed  how  far  the  poison 
of  the  system  had  worked  to  neutralize  Christianity,  by 
declaring  in  a  decision  negroes  to  be  merchandise.  Pre- 
viously to  this,  Charles  II.  had  offered  special  inducements 
to  emigrants  to  settle  in  the  West  Indies  ;  among  them, 
lands  which  should  be  cultivated  by  negroes.  And  not 
only  did  the  British  government  seek  in  every  way  to 
encourage  this  iniquity,  but  it  checked  any  beginnings  of 
virtuous  action  in  the  colonies  directed  against  the  evil. 
Various  acts  of  the  American  colonies  protesting  against 
the  importation  of  slaves,  or  bills  proposed  for  this  pur- 
pose, were  rejected  by  the  British  government — two  in 
the  year  1774  alone.  It  is  but  just  to  say,  however,  that 
the  people  of  many  of  the  colonies  became  soon  as  eager 
for  forced  labour,  or  for  the  gains  in  this  bloody  traffic,  as 
the  people  of  the  mother  country  itself 

The  treaty  of  Utrecht  (17 13)  showed  the  utmost  point 
to  which  this  un- Christian  spirit  reached,  and  is  probably 
the  most  disgraceful  treaty  (in  so  far  as  it  touched  the 
slave  trade)  in  human  annals.  The  English  policy  hence- 
forth turned  about  this  trade  as  a  pivot. 

Between  Christmas,  1752,  and  the  same  day,  1762,  it  is 
estimated  that  71,115  slaves  were  imported  into  Jamaica 
alone.  Bancroft,  the  highest  authority,  estimates,  as  we 
stated    before,   that   for   one    century    previous   to     1776, 

B  B 


370 


GESTA    CHRISTl. 


3,250,000  negroes  were  torn  from  Africa  by  Great  Britain 
alone,  and  exported  to  the  English,  Spanish,  and  French 
colonies,  of  whom  250,000  perished  in  the  Atlantic. 
Helps,^  also  a  careful  writer,  estimates  that  from  15 19  to 
1807  between  five  and  six  millions  of  negroes  were  carried 
from  Africa  by  various  European  powers  to  the  New 
World,  and  sold  as  slaves.  In  one  year  alone  (1768)  he 
states  the  importation  to  have  been  97,000. 

So  gigantic  a  crime  under  the  full  light  of  modern 
Christianity  is  one  of  the  most  discouraging  facts  in  his- 
tory. The  very  foundation  elements  of  Christ's  teachings 
would  forbid  the  least  approach  to  the  trade.  The  maxim 
"to  love  one's  neighbour  as  one's  self,"  must  have  belonged 
to  another  age  and  religion,  when  an  English  Bishop  could 
sign  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.^ 

The  colonies,  whether  as  more  influenced  by  simple 
Christianity,  or  for  other  reasons,  early  (as  we  have  said) 
protested  against  the  slave  trade.  The  great  founder  of 
Georgia,  Oglethorpe,  even  went  so  far  as  to  testify  that 
they  prohibited  slavery  in  that  colony,  "because  it  is 
against  the  Gospel  as  well  as  against  the  fundamental  law 
of  England."  "  We  refused  as  trustees  to  make  a  law 
permitting  such  a  horrid  crime"  (Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  227). 
Within  two  years,  however,  the  inhabitants  petitioned  for 
slaves. 

There  seem  strong  reasons  to  believe  that  slavery  was 
encouraged  in  the  British  colonies,  in  order  to  make  them 
more  dependent  on  Great  Britain.  It  is  certain  that  before 
they  became  independent,  in  1776,  some  300,000  negro 
slaves  had  been  introduced  into  them.     So  perverted  was 

*  Span.  Conq.^  vol.  iv.  p.  371. 

"  John,  Bishop  of  Bristol.  It  seems  appropriate  that  the  central 
slave  market  in  the  time  of  the  Norman  conquest  should  continue  to 
be  the  centre  of  the  African  slave  trade. 


RELIGIOUS  OPPOSITION.  371 

public  opinion  in  England  at  this  time,  that  a  "  Society 
for  Propagating-  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Lands,"  which  had 
sent  missionaries  to  the  coast  of  Guinea  to  convert  the  ne- 
groes, was  found  to  have  owned  plantations  of  slaves  in 
the  Barbadoes,  and  had  not  even  thought  it  worth  while 
to  give  Christian  instruction  to  these  victims  of  tyranny. 
That  sect  which  has  in  many  matters  represented  more 
purely  than  any  other  the  principles  of  Christ,  the  Quakers, 
began  their  noble  series  of  protests  in  Germantown  (Pa.) 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  They  made 
a  public  declaration  that, 

"  Though  the  negroes  are  black,  we  cannot  conceive  there  is  more 
liberty  to  have  them  slaves,  than  it  is  to  have  other  white  ones. 
There  is  a  saying  that  we  should  do  to  all  men  like  as  we  will  be  done 
by  ourselves,  making  no  difference  of  what  generation,  descent,  or 
colour  they  are.  .  .  .  Ah !  do  consider  well  this  thing  if  you 
would  be  done  at  this  manner,  and  if  done  according  to  Christianity. 
.  .  .  Truly  we  cannot  do  so,  except  you  should  inform  us  better 
thereof,  namely,  that  Christians  have  liberty  to  practise  these  thino-s. 
Pray  what  thing  in  the  world  can  be  done  worse  towards  us  than 
if  men  should  rob  or  steal  us  away,  and  sell  us  as  slaves  to  strange 
countries,  separating  husbands  from  their  wives  and  children,"  etc.  ^ 

The  poet  Whittier  -  has  well  said, 

"  It  was  not  the  rigour  of  her  northern  winter,  nor  the  unfriendly 
soil  of  Massachusetts,  which  discouraged  the  introduction  of  slavery 
during  the  first  half-century  of  her  existence  as  a  colony.  It  was  the 
recognition  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  in  sin,  suffering,  and  redemp- 
tion; the  awful  responsibilities  and  eternal  destinies  of  humanity;  her 
hatred  of  wrong  and  tyranny,  and  her  stern  sense  of  justice  which  led 
her  to  impose  upon  the  African  slave  trade  the  terrible  penalty  of  the 
Mosaic  code." 

As  early  as  1675  the  devoted  missionary,  John  Eliot, 
presented  a  memorial  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts 

^  Moore's  History  of  Slavery  in  Mass.,  p.  76. 

'  Whittier,  quoted  iu  Wilson's  History  of  the  Slave  Pover,  vol.  i.  p.  7 


37a  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

against  selling  captive  Indians  into  slavery,  on  the  ground 
that  "it  prolonged  the  war,  hindered  the  enlargement  of 
Christ's  kingdom,  and  that  the  selling  of  souls  is  a  danger- 
ous merchandise."  In  1688,  the  "  Friends  "  of  Pennsylvania 
protested  publicly  against  slavery.  In  1701  a  petition 
against  slavery  was  presented  to  the  represent  itives  of 
Boston,  and  in  1703  an  attempt  was  made  to  hinder  the 
odious  traffic  by  imposing  a  duty  of  £^  on  every  slave 
introduced  into  Massachusetts.  In  1716  the  Quakers 
of  New  England  sent  a  public  letter  to  the  Rhode 
Island  Quarterly  Meeting,  with  the  following  question  : — 
"  Whether  it  be  agreeable  to  truth  for  the  Friends  to 
purchase  slaves  and  keep  them  for  a  term  of  life."  In 
1729  the  Philadelphia  Yearly  Meeting  showed  the  action 
of  Christian  conscience  by  protesting  publicly  against 
buying  slaves.  At  the  same  time  Elihu  Coleman  wrote 
a  pamphlet  against  slavery  as  "anti-Christian,  and  very 
much  opposed  to  both  grace  and  nature."  During  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  devoted  members  of 
the  Quaker  body  laboured  against  slavery  and  strove  to 
awaken  Christians  to  the  sin  of  slave-holding.  Among 
these  should  be  especially  mentioned  Benezet  and  John 
Woolman,  in  Pennsylvania.  The  great  divines,  Wesley 
and  Whitefield,  also  preached  against  the  slave  trade. 
Among  the  Congregational  divines,  Dr.  Hopkins  of  Rhode 
Island  particularly  distinguished  himself  by  his  efforts  to 
break  up  slavery  and  the  slave  trade,  until,  in  1774,  Rhode 
Island  gave  up  the  wicked  traffic,  and  in  1784  abolished 
slavery.  The  Society  of  Friends  was  however  the  only 
religious  body  in  America  which,  as  a  whole,  forbade  the 
holding  of  slaves.  In  1773,  Dr.  Rush,  one  of  the  great 
opponents  of  slavery  in  Philadelphia,  said  very  justly, 
•'Future  ages,  when  they  read  the  accounts  of  the  slave 
trade,  if  they  do  not  regard  them  as  fabulous,  will  be  at  a 


PROTESTS  ON  RELIGIOUS  GROUNDS.  373 

loss  which  to  condemn  most,  our  folly  or  our  guilt  in  abet- 
ting this  direct  violation  of  nature  and  religion.'" 

The  earlier  abolition  societies  in  America  in  the 
eighteenth  century  all  protested  against  this  abuse  op 
religious  grounds,  and  the  writings  of  the  anti-slavery 
reformers  of  that  day  are  full  of  their  objections  to  the 
system,  based  on  similar  motives.  "  Nearly  all,"  says 
the  historian  -  of  the  slave  power,  "  who  engaged  in  the 
formation  of  anti-slavery  societies  were  members  of  Chris- 
tian Churches,  and  were  taking  an  active  part  in  the 
religious  and  missionary  and  philanthropic  enterprizes  of 
the  day," 

One  of  the  celebrated  protests  against  selling  slaves 
came  from  Dr.  Gordon  in  Massachusetts,  in  1776.  "If 
God,"  he  says  "  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  races  of  men, 
I  can  see  no  reason  why  a  black  rather  than  a  white  man 
should  be  a  slave."  ^ 

In  1774  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  excluded  from 
membership  all  who  bought,  sold,  or  kept  negro  slaves. 
So  strong  was  the  impression  that  the  Christian  religion 
freed  a  slave,  that,  as  we  stated  previously,  the  Virginia 
assembly  in  1667  was  obliged  to  pass  a  resolution  de- 
claring that  the  act  of  baptism  did  not  emancipate  :  this 
was  renewed  in  1705.* 

Slave  Trade  in  Great  Britain. — In  Great  Britain,  the 
earliest  opposition  to  the  slave  trade  and  to  slavery  arose 
among  religious  men  and  was  impelled  by  Christian 
motives.  Among  the  prominent  opponents  of  this  abuse 
may  be  mentioned  Baxter,  Bishop  Warburton,  Paley,  John 
Wesley,  Bishop    Porteous,  Whitefield,  and    others.      It  is 

'  Quoted  in  Wilson,  vol.  i.  p   13. 

*   Wilson,  vol.  i.  p.  230. 

'  Moore's  History  of  Slavery,  p.  178. 

^  Anderson's  History  0/  Col.  Church,  vol.  ii.  p.  552 ;  vol.  iii.  p.  227. 


374  GESTA    CHRTSTT. 

unfortunately  true,  however,  that  Whitefield  sub-^icquently 
permitted  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  Georgia,  The 
first  petition  presented  to  Parliament  against  the  slave 
trade  (in  1776)  was  based  on  religious  grounds  :  "that  the 
slave  trade  is  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God  and  the  rights 
of  man."  Previously  to  this,  the  Quakers,  through  George 
Fox,  had  made  the  following  protest  against  the  slave 
trade  in  the  Barbadoes :  "  And  therefore  consider  seri- 
ously of  this,  and  do  you  for  them  and  to  them,  as  you 
would  willingly  have  them  or  any  others  do  unto  you, 
were  you  in  the  like  slavish  condition,  and  bring  them  to 
know  the  Lord  Christ."  Again,  in  1783,  the  Quakers 
presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  a  like  petition  against 
the  slave  trade :  "  Your  petitioners  regret,  that  a  nation 
professing  the  Christian  faith  should  so  far  counteract  the 
principles  of  humanity  and  justice  as  by  the  cruel  treatment 
of  this  oppressed  race,  to  fill  their  minds  with  prejudice 
against  the  mild  and  beneficent  doctrines  of  the  Gospel." 
A  certain  portion  of  English  society  was  becoming  gradually 
permeated  with  the  opinion  that  both  slavery  and  the 
slave  trade  were  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the  Christian 
religion.  The  writings  of  those  earnest  men  who  did  more 
than  any  others  to  abolish  these  terrible  evils,  are  full  of 
religious  expression  and  feeling  in  regard  to  these  wrongs 
Clarkson  and  Sharpe  and  Wilberforce  always  urge  Chris- 
tian motives  against  slavery.  "If,"  says  Clarkson,  "we 
oppress  the  stranger  as  I  have  shown,  and  if  by  a  knowledge 
of  his  heart  we  find  he  is  a  person  of  the  same  passions 
and  feelings  as  ourselves,  we  are  certainly  breaking  by  the 
prosecution  of  the  slave-trade  that  fundamental  rule  of 
Christianity  which  says,  we  shall  not  do  that  unto  another 
which  we  wish  should  not  be  done  to  ourselves."^ 

The  slave  trade  had  brought  to  Great  Britain,  during  the 
*  Clarkson's  History,  p.  246. 


THE  SLAVE    TRADE.  375 

two  centuries  and  more  of  its  continuance,  hunJreds  of 
millions  of  its  ill-gotten  wealth.  It  had  been  protected 
as  we  have  seen,  by  the  most  powerful  interests.  The 
struggle  against  it  was  commenced  by  a  small  band  of 
Christian  men  who  waged  their  war  on  this  powerful 
system  of  injustice  almost  solely  from  motives  of  humanity 
and  religion.  Sixty  years  after  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht 
was  signed,  Wilberforce  began  (1773)  to  write  against  the 
slave  trade.  Clarkson  followed  in  1780.  The  struggle 
was  long,  bitter  and  severe.  It  was  not  till  1806-7  that 
the  final  victory  was  gained,  and  the  slave  trade  was 
abolished  in  the  British  empire.  The  Congress  of  Vienna 
followed  in  1815,  by  engaging  the  European  powers  "to 
use  especial  efforts  to  abolish  the  traffic  reproved  by  the 
laws  of  religion  and  nature." 

The  United  States  had  included  their  judgment  on  the 
slave  trade  in  their  constitution,  but  adjourned  the  linal 
abolition  till  1807.  The  example  of  Great  Britain  was 
followed  by  nearly  all  the  civilized  Powers,^  and  it  is  noted 
as  an  evidence  of  the  advance  of  opinion  that  the  slave 
trade  has  been  condemned  by  three  European  congrcs.es, 
a  papal  bull,  twenty-six  treaties  and  more  than  two  hundred 
conventions  with  African  sovereigns.  England,  as  if 
feeling  the  enormity  of  her  previous  policy,  has  been 
indefatigable  in  her  efforts  to  make  the  only  redress 
possible,  by  breaking  up  the  present  traffic.  She  has 
made  treaties,  maintained  cruisers  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
established  consulates  and  commissions,  and  her  officials 
have  carried  on  an  immense  correspondence,  organizing 
meetings,  missions,  voyages  and  protests  without  number, 
having  for  their  sole  object  the  breaking  up  of  this  de- 
testable trade.     There  is  certainly  no  public  policy  recorded 

'  Denmark  even   preceded  her  and  abolished  the   slave  trade  in 
1794,  so  far  as  it  touched  Danish  ports,  and  in  her  colonics  after  1S04 


376  GESTA   CHRIS TL 

in  history  of  a  higher  and  more  disinterested  nature  oi 
having  more  the  stamp  of  true  Christianity.  Despite  these 
efforts  and  those  of  other  civilized  powers,  the  traffic 
continued,  and  it  is  believed  that  as  late  as  1849,  50,000 
slaves  were  imported  into  Brazil  alone. 

Many  countries  have  even  made  slave  trading  piracy  for 
their  own  citizens,  but  it  is  not  as  yet  held  piracy  by  in- 
ternational law  ;  though  no  doubt  in  another  generation, 
the  public  opinion  of  the  world  will  thus  stamp  it.^ 

Slavery  hi  the  British  Colonies. — The  struggle  in  England 
against  West  India  slavery  was  like  that  against  the  slave 
trade,  throughout  caused  and  urged  on  by  motives  of  Chris- 
tian philanthropy.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  English 
people  or  government  had  any  material  interest  or  profit 
ill  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  their  colonies.  The  whole 
proceeding  seems  an  act  of  justice  and  humanity,  and  bears 
the  stamp  of  religious  influence.  The  writings  and 
speeches  of  the  reformers,  the  arguments  presented  to  the 
people,  the  mottoes  of  the  anti-slavery  societies,  the  feelings 
expressed  by  the  people,  all  prove  that  this  great  reform 
proceeded  from  religious  and  humane  feelings,  was  caused 
by  Christianity  and  urged  especially  from  Christian  motives, 
Colquhoun,^  who  writes  with  anything  but  a  favourable 
spirit  to  revealed  religion,  confesses  that  "a  religious 
delirium  and  morbid  sentimentalism  dictated  this  measure  " 
(emancipation). 

Under  religious  influences  many  ameliorating  features 
had  been  introduced  into  the  colonial  slavery  about  the 
years  1823  and   1826.     But  the  conscience  of  England  had 

'  In  full  and  just  acknowledgment  of  the  interests  and  principles  ol 
Christian  philanthropy  for  the  entire  rooting  out  of  this  criminal  trade, 
slave  trading  shall  be  punished  like  piracy,  (Resolve  of  (Jerman  Con 
federation,  June  19th,  1845.) 

*  Roman  Civil  Law,  vol,  i.  p.  42a 


ABOLITION  OF  COLONIAL  SLAVERY.  377 

come  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  only  right  course  with 
this  evil  was  to  utterly  abolish  it. 

After  a  long  struggle  of  the  most  embittered  nature,  in 
which  the  great  statesmen  of  England  sided  in  Parliament 
with  the  representatives  of  the  religious  sentiment  of  the 
nation,  slavery  was  abolished  (1833)  throughout  the  British 
colonies  at  an  immediate  cost  to  the  nation  of  ;^2O,ooo,000 
($100,000,000)  paid  to  the  planters,  and  an  estimated  loss 
to  the  latter  of  ;^40,ooo,ooo  (|200,ooo,ooo)  in  the  value  of 
the  slaves  and  the  depreciated  price  of  the  lands. 

This  may  certainly  be  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  of  Religion.  The  example  of  England  was  fol- 
lowed in  1846  by  Sweden,  in  1849  by  Denmark,  Uruguay, 
VVallachia  and  Tunis;  in  1848  by  France,  and  in  1855 
by  Portugal.  A  strong  effort  was  made  in  1880  in  the 
Spanish  Cortes  to  abolish  the  evil  in  Cuba,  which  it  is 
believed  will  succeed.  Slavery  is  also  mainly  done  away 
with  in  Brazil — a  law  for  gradual  emancipation  having 
been  passed  in  1871. 

Slavery  in  the  United  States. — The  opposition  to  this 
unjust  system  in  both  the  Northern  and  Southern  States, 
began  very  early  from  religious  motives.  Dr.  Sewall,  who 
is  so  prominent  in  the  early  history  of  Massachusetts  in 
his  opposition  to  both  the  trafific  in  slaves  and  the  hold- 
ing of  them,  draws  his  arguments  especially  from  Christian 
doctrines.  The  Quakers  opposed  and  at  length  entirely 
renounced  slavery  from  religious  grounds.  Emancipation 
took  place  in  the  Northern  States  however  from  a  com- 
bination of  causes — the  influence  of  climate,  the  competition 
of  free  labour,  and  the  little  profit  of  the  system,  as  well 
as  from  conscientious  motives.  In  the  South,  where  at 
first  there  had  been  a  deep  moral  opposition  to  the  system, 
gradually,  through  its  profitable  returns,  the  pride  of  class 
which  it  nourished   and  the  political  power  it  conferred. 


378  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

there  came  to  be  a  strong  conviction  and  even  passion  iii 
its  favour.  As  time  went  on  the  minds  of  thoughtful  and 
otherwise  good  men  in  the  Southern  States,  became  com- 
pletely perverted  and  led  astray  on  this  great  moral  evil. 
Such  sophisms  as  excused  the  horrors  of  the  slave  trade 
to  the  early  Spanish  traders,  blinded  the  intellects  of  great 
numbers  who  on  all  other  matters  were  just  and  humane. 
The  religious  influences  of  American  slavery  were  supposed 
to  outweigh  all  the  injustice  of  the  system.  Then  the  evils 
of  freedom  were  believed  by  many  to  be  greater  than 
all  those  which  fell  to  these  ignorant  creatures  from 
bondage.  They  were  said  to  be  like  children,  unable  to 
guide  or  support  themselves  without  their  masters.  More- 
over, there  was  the  apparent  practical  difficulty  of  what  to 
do  vv'ith  millions  of  slaves  when  they  were  emancipated  ; 
and  the  fear,  bred  of  ignorance,  that  when  freed,  they  would 
massacre  their  former  masters,  and  commit  the  most 
savage  atrocities.  Emancipation  was  thus  believed  to 
mean, — poverty  to  the  masters,  perhaps  servile  war,  and 
certainly  the  introduction  of  a  vast  elcinent  of  ignorance, 
unassimilable  by  society,  into  the  American  body  politic  ; 
and  beyond  this,  the  entire  political  humiliation  of  the 
South  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  Every  practical  in- 
ducement and  interested  motive  seemed  to  work  against 
emancipation  at  the  South.  The  reformer  who  should  ad- 
vocate it  apparently  preached  utter  ruin  to  himself  and  his 
associates;  he  threatened  the  very  existence  of  civil  order; 
he  consigned  his  bondsmen  to  unknown  evils  ;  he  humbled 
and  weakened  politically  that  community  which  had 
become  to  him  more  than  his  nation — his  State.  Tiic 
property  which  he  would  attack  had  come  finally  to  hold  a 
value  of  over  tzvo  thousand  inilliojis  of  dollars.  And  he  did 
all  this,  when  his  false  religious  advisers  urged  upon  iiim 
that  slavery  was  right,  Christian  and  benevolent  to  the  black, 


SOPHISMS  ABOUT  SLAVERY.  379 

Let  none  of  us  who  have  never  been  in  these  circum- 
stances and  have  not  felt  these  temptations,  say  too  confi- 
dently that  we  could  have  kept  the  mind  clear  and  have 
deliberately  chosen  the  path  of  right  and  justice  though  it 
led  to  ruin  and  humiliation. 

On  the  other  hand,  at  the  North,  many  circumstances 
combined  to  blind  the  eyes  of  just  and  God-fearing  men. 
Thousands  believed  that  their  fathers  had  entered  into 
a  political  compact  which  for  ever  forbade  them  from 
abolishing  slavery  in  the  Slave  States  by  the  power  of  the 
Federal  government.  Their  hands  were  tied  by  solemn 
engagements.  Under  their  view  of  the  constitution,  they 
did  not  hold  themselves  responsible  for  this  system  of  in- 
justice, where  it  was  under  State  power.  They  could  only 
bring  about  emancipation  by  breaking  this  compact,  or  by 
civil  war.  Jesuitical  sophisms  had  also  perverted  the  judg- 
ment of  many.  The  negroes  were  under  a  Christian  system 
of  instruction  ;  they  were  better  off  than  as  heathen  in 
Africa ;  emancipation  would  mean  the  chaos  of  society 
at  the  South,  and  perhaps  servile  war.  Moreover  this 
enormous  property-interest  in  the  Southern  States  was 
connected  by  a  thousand  ties  to  the  wealth  and  prosperity 
of  the  North.  The  greed  of  gain,  even  from  this  unjust 
source,  stupefied  the  conscience  of  a  large  part  of  the  re- 
ligious community  of  the  Free  States.  Again,  as  so  often 
in  history,  the  organized  Church,  in  many  of  its  branches, 
became  arrayed  against  true  Christianity.  Many  of  the 
nominally  religious  bodies  of  the  country  became  pro- 
slavery,  and  therefore  false  to  the  teachings  of  Christ. 

The  opinion  of  the  Presbyterian  Synod  in  the  United 
States  is  given  as  early  as  1787,  in  favour  of  universal 
liberty  and  of  constant  preparation  by  the  masters  for 
emancipation,  by  providing  education  for  the  slaves,  and 
by  granting  them  a  small  property  of  their  own,  and  fmall)- 


38o  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

they  "recommended  it  to  all  their  people  to  use  the  most 
prudent  measures,  consistent  with  the  interests  and  the 
state  of  civil  society  in  the  countries  where  they  live, 
to  procure  eventually  the  final  abolition  of  slavery  in 
America."  ^ 

Again  this  advice  is  repeated  in  1815  ;  and  in  18 18,  the 
General  Assembly  venture  to  say  that  slavery  is  a  gross 
violation  of  the  most  precious  and  sacred  rights  of  human 
nature;  "utterly  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  God,  which 
requires  us  to  love  our  neighbour  as  ourselves,  and  totally 
irreconcilable  with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Christ."  ^ 
They  then  adopted  a  declaration,  which  was  repeatedly 
reafiirmed  by  subsequent  assemblies,  that  "  it  is  manifestly 
the  duty  of  all  Christians  who  enjoy  the  light  of  the 
present  day,  to  use  their  honest,  earnest  and  unwearied 
endeavours,  as  speedily  as  possible,  to  efface  this  blot  on 
our  holy  religion,  and  obtain  the  complete  abolition  of 
slavery  throughout  Christendom."  ^ 

The  Congregationalists,  Unitarians  and  other  sects  were 
in  their  early  history  even  more  opposed  to  slavery,  both 
in  their  formal  resolutions  and  in  their  practical  action. 
The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  an  early  conference 
(1780)  plainly  condemned  tlie  system  of  human  bondage  ; 
but,  as  with  many  of  the  sects  in  the  United  States,  the 
corrupting  influences  of  the  system  gradually  penetrated 
the  Church  and  weakened  its  moral  force.  In  1800,  the 
Annual  Conference  was  directed  to  draw  up  an  address 
for  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  to  such  legis- 
latures as  had  passed  no  laws  on  this  subject.  By  a  sub- 
sequent action,  however,  this  and  other  similar  paragraphs 
were  struck  out,  and  the  following  words  were  added  (1804)  ; 

'  Digest  of  Records  of  the  General  Assonbly  of  the  Preid.  Churchy 
p.  338. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  342.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  342. 


WEAKNESS   OF   THE   CHURCH  381 

"  Let  all  our  preachers,  from  time  to  time  as  occasion  serves, 
admonish  and  exhort  all  slaves  to  render  due  respect  and 
obedience  to  the  commands  and  interests  of  their  respec- 
tive masters."  ^ 

It  is  from  1830  to  1850  that  the  so-called  "Church  of 
Christ "  in  the  United  States  was,  in  many  of  its  branches, 
especially  false  to  His  principles  as  regards  justice  and 
benevolence  to  our  fellow-men.  This  was  true  not  only 
of  the  public  action  of  many  religious  bodies,  but  of  the 
private  views  and  arguments  of  individual  leaders  of  the 
Church  in  all  sects,  both  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant. 
Many  sophistical  arguments  were  put  forth  by  Northern 
religious  men  to  prove  the  right  of  slavery ;  and  the 
Churches  were  exceedingly  timid  in  hearing  or  pleading 
the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  A  distinguished  Presbyterian 
divine,  Dr.  Albert  Barnes,  said  in  a  well  known  address, 
"  There  is  no  power  out  of  the  Church  that  could  sustain 
slavery  an  hour  if  it  were  not  sustained  in  it."  ^ 

Even  the  Quakers,  in  this  hour  of  trial,  were  often  found 
inconsistent  with  the  doctrines  their  predecessors  had  so 
consistently  taught,  and  gave  little  encouragement  to  move- 
ments for  emancipation.^  It  is  stated  that  only  certain 
small  sects,  such  as  the  Free  Will  Baptists  and  Old  School 
Covenanters,  were  always  and  consistently  opposed  to 
slavery.*  Individual  Churches,  however,  in  all  sects  were 
true  to  the  spirit  of  their  Master — especially  among  Con- 
gregationalists  and  Unitarians. 

In  the  meantime,  the  profound  principles  of  Christianity 
were  working  on  such  minds  as  Garrison's,  Lovejoy's, 
Phillips',  Johnson's  and  others,  and  producing  in  them 
the  intense  conviction,  that  the  slave  was  a  brother,  that 

'.  Bowen's  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  Slavery^  p.  24. 

*  Johnson's  Garrison,  p.  248. 

^  Ibid.  *  Ibid. 


382  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

for  him  Christ  had  lived  and  died,  and  we  were  bound  ta 
do  to  him  as  we  would  have  others  do  to  us  in  like  condi* 
tion,  and  that  no  compact  or  constitution  could  hold  which 
permitted  such  an  atrocious  injustice  as  American  slavery. 
It  is  true  that  subsequently  the  false  position  of  a  large 
part  of  the  American  Church  on  this  question  forced  many 
of  the  early  abolitionists  to  an  apparent  opposition  to 
religion  ;  it  was  only  however  an  asserting  of  the  rea' 
character  of  Christianity  against  those  who  had  falsified  it 

Garrison  at  an  early  period  said,  "  Emancipation  must 
be  the  work  of  Christianity  and  the  Church.  They  must 
achieve  the  elevation  of  the  blacks  and  place  them  on  the 
equality  of  the  Gospels."  ^  And  again  in  an  impassioned 
passage,  the  great  emancipator  exclaims,  "  I  call  upon  the 
spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect  in  heaven,  upon  all  who 
have  experienced  the  love  of  God  in  their  souls  here  below, 
upon  the  Christian  converts  in  India  and  the  isles  of  the 
sea,  to  sustain  one  in  the  assertion,  that  there  is  power 
enough  in  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  to  melt  down  the 
most  stubborn  prejudices,  to  overthrow  the  highest  wall 
of  partition,  to  break  the  strongest  caste,  to  improve  and 
elevate  the  most  degraded  and  to  equalize  all  its  recipients."" 

No  one  who  knew  anything  of  the  anti-slavery  reformers 
in  the  United  States,  will  doubt  that  their  career  was 
begun  and  carried  on  under  the  purest  influence  of  Christ's 
truths.  It  was  these  and  similar  men  and  women  who 
founded,  in  1833,  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society. 

But  beyond  them  was  a  great  host  of  religious  men  and 
women  in  all  sects,  who  felt  the  deepest  opposition  to 
slavery  from  humane  and  religious  grounds.  They  con- 
scientiously believed  their  hands  tied  by  a  political  com- 
pact ;  they  did  not  hold  themselves  responsible  for  the 
existence  of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States  ;  but  they  were 

*  yohnsoHy  p.  68.  *  Ibid.,T^.  106.     Words  spoken  in  1832. 


ANTI-SLAVERY  PARTY.  383 

unalterably  opposed  to  its  extension  or  to  any  increase  of 
its  power.  From  this  great  body,  the  prayer  for  emancipa 
tion  went  up  by  night  and  day  ;  they  scattered  innumerable 
documents,  and  furnished  speakers  and  arguments  against 
the  system  ;  they  did  their  utmost  to  hem  the  slave  power 
within  fixed  boundaries  ;  they  poured  free  labour  over  the 
new  territories,  and  from  them  were  organized  the  great 
party  which  started,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  moral 
reform,  its  triumphant  opposition  to  the  extension  of  the 
slave  power  and  finally  to  its  very  existence.^ 

The  natural  effect  and  tendency  of  slavery  at  the  South 
tended  more  and  more  to  awaken  the  Northern  conscience. 
The  increasing  cruelty  of  the  masters  ;  the  laws  against 
instruction  of  the  negroes  ;  the  breeding  of  slaves  for  the 
market,  and  the  separation  of  families  ;  the  violence  and 
arrogance  of  the  slaveholders,  and  beyond  all  other  things, 
the  pursuing  of  fugitive  bondmen  on  free  territory,  aroused 
each  day  a  deeper  hostility  to  this  organized  injustice 
among  even  the  most  cautious  of  the  citizens  of  the  Free 
States.     When  slaves  were  sold  under  the  shadow  of  the 

'  In  an  interesting  sketch  of  the  struggle  which  prevented  Illinois 
in  1823  from  becoming  a  Slave  State,  the  Life  of  Gov.  Coles,  the 
biographer  (Mr.  Washburne),  says,  "  the  press  teemed  with  publica- 
tions on  the  subject.  The  stump-orators  were  invoked,  and  the  pulpit 
thundered  anathemas  against  the  introduction  of  slavery.  The  relig- 
ious community  coupled  freedom  and  Christianity  together,  which  was 
one  of  the  most  powerful  levers  used  in  the  contest."  At  one  meeting 
of  the  Friends  of  Freedom  in  St.  Clair  county,  more  than  thirty 
preachers  of  the  Gospel  attended  and  opposed  the  introduction  ot 
slavery  into  the  State.* 

"  It  may  be  said  to  the  eternal  honour  of  the  clergy  of  Illinois  at 
that  day,  that  they  were  almost  without  exception  opposed  to  the  Con- 
vention (which  favoured  the  making  it  a  Slave  State},  and  that  they 
exerted  great  influence  in  securing  the  rejection  of  the  Convention  pro- 
position at  the  polls  "  (p.  171). 

•  Sketch  of  Gov.  Coles,  p.  136. 


384      *  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

Capitol  of  the  United  States,  and  when  government  tioops 
conducted  a  chained  runaway  through  Boston  to  his 
master,  the  most  conservative  felt  that  no  American  citizen 
could  escape  a  certain  responsibility  for  the  existence  of 
slavery  ;  and  a  deep  and  burning  indignation  was  kindled 
in  many  minds  that  such  a  shame  and  tyranny  could 
exist  under  the  republic. 

In  all  great  reforms  and  changes,  there  are  many  forces 
that  bring  about  the  final  result.  The  wrath  of  man  as 
well  as  the  love  of  God,  mingle  often  in  the  ultimate 
abolition  of  human  ills.  It  was  the  anti-slavery  feeling, 
begotten  of  Christianity,  which  prepared  the  minds  of  the 
p-reat  intellisrent  masses  of  the  Free  States  for  their  final 
struggle  with  the  slave  power.  And  no  reasonable  ob- 
jector should  belittle  this  motive,  because  these  very  men 
were  held  back  from  forcible  opposition  to  slavery  by  a 
loyal  conviction  of  their  obligations  under  the  consti- 
tution. They  saw  that  to  strike  directly  at  the  slave 
power  meant  revolution  and  civil  war.  Considering  the 
probable  fearful  nature  of  such  a  conflict  and  the  un- 
certainty of  its  issue,  they  do  not  deserve  reproach  that 
diey  waited  for  the  other  side  to  give  the  first  blow. 

And  then,  beginning  the  difficult  struggle  with  a  large 
element  of  the  population  in  sympathy  with  the  slave- 
masters,  it  may  be  excused  that  these  doubting  ones 
were  attracted  by  other  cries,  than  those  of  anti-slavery. 
The  government,  too,  kept  its  old  traditions,  and  still  feared 
to  avow,  what  was  the  great  impelling  power  of  the  North- 
ern uprising — its  hostility  to  slavery.  American  states- 
men in  their  proclamations  and  public  despatches,  even 
made  light  of  the  objects  of  the  struggle,  and  seldom  pro- 
fessed the  moral  enthusiasm  which  fired  the  thousands  of 
individuals  who  pressed  forward  to  the  ranks.  But  those 
who  knew  the  people  at  this  time,   knew  that   in   ever>' 


THE   UP-RISING  AGAINST  SLAVERY.  385 

company  and  regiment  enlistrng  for  the  war,  there  were 
men  animated  with  an  unquenchable  enthusiasm  for  Hberty 
and  hatred  of  slavery.  They  loved  the  Union  indeed,  but 
they  loved  it  as  the  ideal  of  liberty  for  all  men  of  all  races. 
A  moral  fervour  burned  through  all  classes  of  men  at 
the  North.  The  first  regiments  came  from  the  most  anti- 
slavery  districts  of  the  most  religious  communities.  Many 
of  the  leaders  were  avowed  abolitionists.  The  popular 
songs  breathed  the  spirit  of  emancipation.  A  thousand 
pulpits  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  negro  and  denounced 
slavery.  The  feeling  had  stamped  itself  deep  into  the 
heart  of  the  Northern  people,  that  slavery,  as  a  great 
wrong  and  injustice,  would  injure  the  white  and  the  whole 
country  equally  with  the  negro,  and  was  against  the  laws 
of  Providence. 

Innumerable  other  feelings  and  motives  mingled  in  the 
spirit  which  opened  and  sustained  the  war  :  love  of  the 
Union,  pugnacity,  the  hostility  of  a  free-labour  class  to 
a  slaveholding  class,  political  sympathy  and  a  careful 
weighing  of  the  chances  of  the  future  if  a  slaveholding 
republic  were  allowed  unlimited  sway  side  by  side  with 
a  free  republic.  But  deeper  than  all  these,  among  the 
religious  bodies,  and  in  every  class,  was  an  intense  moral 
opposition  to  slavery,  and  a  determination  now  that  hands 
were  unbound  as  to  the  compacts  of  the  constitution,  to 
get  rid  of  it  once  and  for  ever. 

The  mere  pecuniary  and  commercial  interest  of  the 
Free  States  was  undoubtedly  to  leave  the  status  quo,  to 
enjoy  the  indirect  profits  of  slave-labour,  and  not  suddenly 
to  destroy  two  thousand  millions  worth  of  apparent 
property  in  a  portion  of  the  republic.  The  moral  forces, 
as  well  as  enlightened  policy,  prevailed. 

It  is  true  that  emancipation  was  at  length  declared  as 
a  "  war-measure."      But   the  way  was  prepared  for  it  by 

Z  G 


386  GESTA    CHRISTJ. 

the  moral  opposition  to  slavery  as  a  wrong  and  in^ 
justice. 

The  whole  population  of  the  Free  States  had  been 
educated  by  events  as  to  the  real  character  of  the  system, 
and  conscience  and  religious  sentiment  had  been  en- 
lightened by  what  seemed  the  revelation  of  Providence 
itself.  In  such  vast  social  reforms  as  the  abolition  of 
American  slavery,  many  influences  must  combine  with  the 
purely  moral  and  religious.  Christianity  acts  merely  as 
stimulating  the  conscience,  increasing  human  sympathy, 
and  awakening  the  mind  to  the  horror  and  injustice  of 
such  an  oppression  of  a  fellow-man.  It  does  not  show  the 
way  to  revolution,  though  indirectly  it  does  often  "  bring 
a  sword  into  the  world."  But  it  works  upon  the  most  tre- 
mendous motive-power  in  human  affairs — the  conscience 
and  sympathy,  and  under  it,  convulsions  must  come  ;  until 
finally  men  approach  in  institutions  and  laws  its  divine 
principles. 

Without  the  passion  a;:d  rashness  of  the  South,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  emancipation  would  have  come  for 
centuries.  There  might  have  been  two  republics  indeed, 
but  one  would  have  been  slaveholding.  Still  ultimately  in 
the  far  future,  after  untold  horrors,  and  convulsions  and 
wars,  freedom  would  have  dawned  on  the  American  con- 
tinent also,  for  "  where  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is,  there  i.s 
liberty." 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

MODERN      SERFDOM. 

The  history  of  serfdom  and  emancipation  in  the  Middle 
Ages  virtually  includes  the  similar  history  in  modern 
times. 

This  relic  of  a  barbarous  period  reached  down  to  a  more 
civilized  era.  The  oppression  and  exactions  of  serfdom 
in  every  country  of  Europe,  except  Norway  and  Sweden, 
have  weighed  down  and  degraded  the  labouring  class, 
crippled  their  producing  power,  and  in  many  states,  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  outbreaks  which  accompanied  or 
followed  the  French  Revolution.  The  ignorance  and  de- 
gradation of  a  large  part  of  the  European  peasantry  in 
this  century  are  due  most  of  all  to  serfdom.  Even  as 
late  as  1750  (it  is  stated  by  careful  writers)^  more  than 
one-half  of  the  German  people  were  in  the  state  of  serf- 
dom. The  profound  moral  and  religious  forces  which 
gradually  change  such  a  system  of  injustice  as  this,  are 
not  easily  recognised.  The  most  powerful  influences 
working  to  the  overthrow  of  serfdom  were  the  silent. 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century,  the  presb  n  Europe 
became  imbued  with  humane  and  religious  ideas,  and 
thundered  incessantly  against  this  ancient  injustice. 

The   philosophers,    who  often,   while  deriding   religion, 

'  Sugenheim.    Zimmerman, 

387 


388  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

showed  the  purest  Christian  spirit,  constantly  protested 
against  this  wrong.  Men's  minds  became  everywhere 
stamped  with  the  ideas  of  equaHty  of  rights  for  all,  and 
of  humanity  toward  the  weak.  The  incredible  burdens 
and  exactions  of  serfdom  in  France,  Germany,  Italy,  Spain 
and  other  countries,  were  felt  to  be  violations  of  Christian 
and  humane  obligations.  Here  and  there  prominent  acts 
of  emancipation  by  individual  masters  betray  the  deep 
impulses  at  work. 

Thus  a  certain  Count  Rantzan  in  Holstein,  in  1766, 
published  a  pamphlet,  giving  his  own  experience  in 
freeing  his  serfs,  which  was  afterwards  circulated  as  a 
document  of  emancipation  in  Russia,  and  is  believed  to 
have  had  much  effect  there.  This  owner  of  serfs  gives  a 
powerful  picture  of  the  hopelessness,  degradation  and  ir- 
religion  of  his  bondmen  ;  how  they  had  no  heart  in  their 
labours,  no  courage  and  no  hope  ;  and  how  they  even 
became  indifferent  to  the  strongest  impulses  of  human 
nature,  and  did  not  care  for  marriage  or  to  leave  descend- 
ants who  should  inherit  such  misery.  "This  condition 
(of  serfdom),"  says  the  Count,  "  naturally  extinguished  all 
moral  good  in  them  ;  one  observed  in  them  a  beastly  cold- 
bloodedness towards  God  and  religion.^ 

In  various  countries,  the  sovereigns  were  sufficiently  in 
advance  of  their  times  to  press  emancipation  on  an  unwil- 
ling nobility  and  gentry  ;  in  others,  the  storms  of  revolu- 
tion swept  away  the  last  relics  of  feudal  oppression.  But 
in  almost  all,  the  ideas  and  principles  derived  from  religion 
had  prepared  men's  minds  for  removing  the  heavy  burdens 
on  the  poor. 

One  of  the  earliest  royal  ordinances  against  .serfdom 
in  modern  times  was  from  Frederick  I.  of  Prussia  (1702), 
doing  away  with  it  on  the  royal  domains  ;  this,  however 
*  Su^-enheiniy  p.  517. 


ABOLITION  OF  SERFDOM,  389 

was  withdrawn  in  171 1.  Frederick  II.  attempted  to  renew 
the  injunction  in  17 19,  especially  on  the  royal  territory 
in  Prussian  Pomerania.  These  efforts  were  followed  by 
those  of  Frederick  the  Great  (1763),  but  they  all  failed, 
thoutjh  the  oppression  was  much  softened  in  the  Polish 
provinces. 

In  France,  an  edict  of  Louis  XVI.  proclaims  (1779)  that, 
"considering  that  a  great  number  of  our  subjects  are  still 
servilely  attached  to  the  soil,  and  regarded  as  making  part 
of  it,^  they  shall  be  free  on  the  royal  domain."  Yet, 
nothing  but  the  explosion  of  the  revolution  broke  up  the 
exactions  and  burdens  of  ages,  and  freed  France  from  this 
injustice.  Previous  to  this,  in  North  Italy  the  princes  had 
abolished  these  ancient  oppressions  of  the  people,  Vic- 
tor Amadeus  of  Savoy  having  abolished  forced  labour  in 
1729,  and  removed  all  similar  burdens  in  Sardinia  in  1761. 
In  Germany,  it  was  in  this  century  before  the  various 
oppressions  of  serfdom  were  done  away  with.  As  usual, 
the  revolutions  bore  in  their  train  emancipation  from 
feudalism.  The  outbreak  of  1830  was  followed  by  free- 
dom to  the  poor  peasant  in  Hanover  (183 1),  in  Saxony  and 
Bavaria  (1832),  and  Wiirtemburg  (1836).  The  Revolution 
of  1848  was  followed  by  entire  liberty  in  Prussia  (1850)  from 
feudal  burdens,  though  serfdom  had  been  abolished  forty 
years  before ;  and  by  the  utter  doing  away  with  forced 
labour  and  service  among  the  peasants  by  the  Magyar 
nobility  (1849)  in  Hungary.  In  Austria,  the  Imperial 
house  had  done  much  for  the  serfs  through  different  reigns, 
but  serfdom  was  not  ended  in  Gallicia  till  17S2  ;  and  all 
traces  of  feudalism  were  not  swept  away  till  this  cen- 
tury. 

This  abuse  in  some  of  its   forms  survived  in  Denmark 
till  1835,  and  in  Switzerland  till  1846. 
*  Sugtnheim. 


39©  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

In  Russia,  as  is  well  known,  serfdom  survived  till  1861. 
It  is  probable  that  in  this  latter  country,  and  in  Hungary, 
the  religious  impulse  had  less  share  in  emancipation  than  it 
has  had  in  the  rest  of  Europe.  Still  both  countries  felt 
the  current  of  the  age,  which  has  been  strongly  directed 
by  the  ideals  presented  in  the  Gospels.  The  conception 
of  man  as  a  "  a  brother  in  Christ,"  and  one  for  whom  He 
has  died,  always  tends  to  shake  down  tyranny  and  under- 
mine injustice.  As  Religion  spreads  abroad  the  ideas  of 
human  brotherhood,  equality  before  God,  responsibility 
to  Him  and  liberty,  the  ancient  systems  of  injustice  are 
brought  to  the  ground ,  and  Freedom  and  Justice  begin 
to  rule  and  prevail. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE   DUEL. 

T£IE  progress  which  has  been  made  in  Christianized 
opinion  in  regard  to  this  custom,  may  be  best  measured 
by  the  views  of  one  of  the  most  acute  philosophical  writers 
on  law  in  modern  times ;  an  author,  too,  who  considered 
all  these  subjects  (so  far  as  his  training  permitted),  unin- 
fluenced by  Christian  traditions.  Bentham,  in  his  "  Princi- 
ples of  Penal  Law"  ;  says  of  the  duel :  "  It  entirely  effaces 
the  stain  which  an  insult  imprints  upon  honour,"  He  then 
praises  courage,  justly,  as  one  of  the  highest  qualities  of 
the  citizen,  and  regards  it  as  especially  tested  by  this  mode 
of  trial, 

"  In  the  state  of  neglect,"  he  adds,  "  in  which  the  laws  till  the 
present  time  have  left  the  honour  of  the  citizens,  he  who  endures  an 
insult  without  having  recourse  to  the  satisfaction  which  public  opinion 
prescribed  to  him,  by  thus  acting  exhibits  himself  as  reduced  to  a 
state  of  humiliating  dependence,  and  exposed  to  receive  an  indefinite 
series  of  affronts ;  he  exhibits  himself  as  devoid  of  the  sentiment  of 
courage  which  produces  general  security,  and,  indeed,  as  void  of 
sensibility  to  reputation, — sensibility,  protection  of  all  the  virtues  and 
safeguard  against  all  the  vices." 

Or  again, 

"  Duelling  is  a  preservative  of  politeness  and  peace — the  fear  of 

'  Benthani^s  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  380.  There  is  reason  to  think  from 
a  letter  of  Bentham  to  the  Duke  of  WellingVjn,  that  he  modified 
these  views  in  later  life. 


392  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

being  obliged  to  give  c  r  receive  a  challenge,  destroys  a  quarrel  in  the 
germ," 

"  If  the  legislator  had  always  applied  a  proper  system  of  satisfaction 
for  offences,  there  would  have  been  no  duelling,  which  has  been  and 
is  still  but  a  supplement  to  the  insufliciency  of  the  laws." 

The  Christian  system,  it  need  not  be  said  in  reply, 
differs  in  toto  from  the  modern  theory  of  "  honour,"  as  it 
does  from  the  spirit  which  supports  war.  It  requires  the 
behever  indeed  to  scrupulously  regard  the  opinion  of  the 
just  and  honourable,  and  to  avoid  even  the  appearance 
of  evil  ;  but  its  standard  is  not  reputation,  even  that  of  the 
highest  and  most  civilized  persons,  but  character,  and 
character  continually  tested  by  Christ.  Its  "sensibility  " 
is  constantly  called  out,  not  towards  a  public  opinion  which 
ever  changes,  but  towards  the  supposed  approval  of  the 
purest  moral  character  which  history  has  known.  Ben- 
tham's  argument  at  this  late  day  hardly  seems  worth 
replying  to.  A  devout  Christian  of  his  time  would  have 
said  :  "  We  hope  through  the  gradual  influences  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  right  reason,  to  change  the  public 
opinion  of  all  civilized  states,  so  that  the  politeness  and 
peace  of  which  you  speak  will  be  the  national  outflow 
of  improved  morals  and  manners,  and  not  the  effect  of 
fear  or  prudence ;  so  that  affronts  will  not  be  so  often 
offered,  or  will  not  be  so  much  felt,  or  will  be  punished  by 
law  and  public  reprobation.  We  hold  that  courage  may  be 
tested  in  far  more  sensible  and  useful  ways  than  in  personal 
combat ;  and  that  the  duel  settles  nothing,  and  cannot 
affect  in  one  way  or  the  other  the  reputation  assailed.  We 
hold  that  a  nobler  courage  may  be  shown  by  refusing  a 
challenge  than  accepting  it  ;  and  that  the  Christian  has  a 
higher  standard  to  measure  himself  by  than  a  changing 
public  opinion,  inherited  from  barbaric  times,  which  often 
approves  selfish  and  base  actions.     We   trust   to  change 


THE   CHURCH  AND    THE  DUEL.  393 

both  opinion  and  law,  so  that  duelling  will  become  con- 
sidered as  a  relic  of  barbarism,  as  it  is  known  to  be  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion." 

The  struggle,  however,  between  the  spirit  of  this  Faith 
and  this  custom  has  been  an  exceedingly  slow  and  doubt- 
ful one  for  the  past  three  centuries.  In  this  matter,  the 
Church  has  been  indeed  more  consistent  with  the  teachings 
of  the  Master  than  in  any  other.  The  Church  as  well  as 
Christianity  has  nearly  always  opposed  the  duel  of  revenge, 
or  that  fought  on  account  of  wounded  honour. 

The  Council  of  Toledo  (1477)  made  a  solemn  declara- 
tion that  Christian  burial  should  be  refused  to  duellists. 
Pope  Julius  II.  (1509)  issued  a  bull,  prohibiting  the  duel 
on  pain  of  excommunication,  and  Leo  X.  (15 19)  threat- 
ened the  same  punishment  to  all  witnesses,  seconds,  or 
abettors  of  the  offence.  Pius  V.  extended  the  prohibition 
to  all  Christendom.  The  celebrated  Council  of  Trent 
gave  forth  no  uncertain  sound  on  this  custom.  All 
duellists  were  threatened  with  excommunication  and  loss 
of  Christian  burial,  and  the  duel  was  called  "  an  invention 
of  the  devil  to  ruin  the  soul,  by  the  bloody  death  of  the 
body."  GregoryXIII,  (1582)  also  issued  a  bull, threatening 
terrible  spiritual  penalties  on  all  duellists,  and  Clement 
V.  extended  the  punishment  to  all  seconds  and  abettors  ; 
and  as  late  as  1752,  Benedict  XIV.  proclaims  a  refusal 
of  Christian  burial  even  to  those  who  died  away  from 
the  field  of  contest,  but  through  the  effects  of  the  duel. 

The  Protestant  and  Catholic  Church  has  each  been 
equally  opposed  to  it  during  all  their  history.  The  books 
of  religious  instruction,  and  the  volumes  of  sermons,  in 
all  Christian  countries,  are  full  of  arguments  and  appeals 
against  the  practice.  And  yet  it  was  late  in  this  century 
before  Christian  influences  produced  much  effect. 

The  "duel  of  honour"  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the 


394  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

"judicial  duel"  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is  an  off-shoot 
of  chivalry,  and  especially  made  its  appearance  in  France 
in  the  sixteenth  century  in  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  It 
represented  the  exaggerated  sensitiveness  of  a  class  to 
any  slight  affecting  its  reputation,  which  was  an  especial 
feature  of  chivalry  and  feudalism.  Reversing  the  rule  of 
the  Roman  law,^  the  modern  gentleman  felt  trie  light  blow 
of  a  stick  or  the  hand  on  the  face  as  a  greater  insult  than 
a  stroke  by  a  deadly  weapon,  because  the  peasants  and 
villains  alone  fought  with  sticks  and  fists,  and  with  un- 
covered faces.  The  lie  was  the  highest  insult,  because 
this  was  the  common  reproach  or  accusation  made  against 
the  slave,  the  villain,  or  the  peasant. 

The  duel  became  the  badge  or  sign  of  a  class  :  and  the 
chivalric  habit  of  a  barbaric  age  of  fighting  in  the  cause 
of  the  weak  or  for  any  wound  of  honour  or  the  most 
trifling  reason,  became  transferred  to  a  more  enlightened 
time,  and  was  the  mode  of  showing  membership  in  an 
undefined  body,  of  restraining  rudeness  and  satisfying 
enmity.  It  is  the  "survival"  of  barbarism  in  a  civilized 
age. 

So  rife  did  the  practice  become  in  France,  that  during 
the  eighteen  years  of  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.,  four  thousand 
French  gentlemen  are  said  to  have  perished  in  the  duel, 
and  this  good-natured  king  is  reported  to  have  granted 
14,000  pardons  to  those  who  had  offended  against  the 
law  in  this  matter.  From  his  reign  to  1757,  no  less  than 
twelve  royal  ordinances  and  eight  acts  were  published 
against  duelling,  and  yet  as  late  as  the  minority  of  Louis 
XIV.  three  hundred  of  the  first  nobles  of  France  perished 
by  this  practice. 

Duels  were  almost  equally  common  in  England  and 
Ireland.     In  the  reign  of  George  III.  there  were,  according 

'  Ictus  fustium  infamiam  non  importat.  (De  his  qui  infamia,  etc.) 


DUELS  IN  ENGLAND.  395 

to  Gilchrist,  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  duels,  in  which 
one-fifth  of  the  combatants  were  killed,  and  one-half  re- 
ceived wounds  ;  only  eighteen  of  these  were  tried  (though 
the  statute  books  are  full  of  laws  against  the  practice),  of 
whom  six  were  acquitted,  seven  were  found  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter, three  of  murder,  two  were  executed,  and  eight 
sentenced  to  imprisonment.  Every  state  in  Europe  has 
legislated  against  duelling,  and  in  many  armies,  an  officer 
is  cashiered  who  takes  part  in  a  duel.  "Courts  of  Honour" 
have  been  formed  in  various  countries  to  take  jurisdiction 
of  offences  against  honour.  Yet  duelling  still  continues 
in  France,  and  to  a  limited  degree  in  Germany.  Even 
so  celebrated  a  general  and  old  a  soldier  as  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  after  all  his  victories,  felt  it  necessary  to  fight 
a  duel  as  late  as  1829 ;  and  a  duel  between  Englishmen  in 
England  was  fought  as  late  as  1845,  while  one  occurred 
in  England  between  Frenchmen  in  1852.^ 

As  late  as  1 841,  an  address  was  presented  to  the  House 
of  Lords,  in  relation  to  a  particular  duel,  and  protesting 
against  this  barbaric  custom,  and  obviously  under  the 
impression  that  public  feeling  among  the  higher  classes 
was  very  much  in  its  favour. 

^Wf  society"  say  the  petitioners,  "is  to  be  preserved,  it  must  be 
christianized.  Your  lordships  have  acknowledged  this  great  truth 
by  your  exertions  to  preserve  the  Christian  principle  in  education. 
.  .  .  But  it  would  be  mockery  to  hold  forth  the  Decalogue  with 
one  hand,  and  with  the  other,  a  Charter  of  legitimacy  to  that  spurious 
offspring  of  human  vice  and  folly,  which,  involving  as  it  does  a  direct 
transf  -ession  not  of  one  only  but  almost  every  law  in  the  Decalogue, 
virtually  annuls  it.  .  .  .  We  call  upon  your  lordships  therefore  in 
the  name  of  God  and  man     ...     to  accompany  your  verdict  with 


^  It  is  reported  that  in  the  same  year  a  trial  occurred  in  England  for 
slander,  between  two  English  Naval  Officers,  which  would  have  been 
settled  earlier  by  duel 


396  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

the  fearless  and  u..q_alified  expression  of  your  united  abhorrence  of 
the  unhallowed  system  of  duellins^."  ' 

A  duel  occurred  in  England  in  1843,  which  gave  rise 
to  the  "  Anti-duelling  Association,"  and  was  followed  by 
an  order  of  the  Queen  through  the  War-office  in  1844. 
This  order  2  has  perhaps  broken  up  duelling  in  the  British 
army,  though  previous  experience  shows  that  such  orders 
are  successful  only  when  they  are  the  voice  of  public 
opinion.  By  this  regulation,  an  officer  engaging  in  a  duel 
is  cashiered  and  his  second  punished.  In  the  third  article, 
approbation  is  expressed  of 

"The  conduct  of  those  who  having  had  the  misfortune  to  give 
offence  to  or  injure  or  insult  others,  shall  frankly  explain,  apologize,  or 
offer  redress  for  the  same,  or  who,  having  received  offence,  shall 
cordially  accept  frank  explanation  or  apology  for  the  same  ;  .  .  . 
and  lastly,  all  officers  and  soldiers  are  acquitted  of  disgrace  or  dis- 
advantage, who,  being  willing  to  make  or  accept  such  redress,  refuse 
to  accept  challenges,"  etc. 

This  certainly  is  at  length  the  voice  of  Christianity  speak- 
ing through  governmental  regulation  and  military  law. 

In  the  United  States,  the  duel  has  been  so  common, 
that  a  modern  English  historian  of  duelling,  Dr.  Millingen,"' 
writing  in  1841,  says,  with  suitable  modesty,  he  is  con- 
fident from  the  progress  already  made,  that  within  half 
a  century,  duels  will  become  as  rare  in  the  United  States 
as  in  Great  Britain,  if  not  rarer.  In  its  early  history,  the 
Republic  lost  the  greatest  statesman  it  has  ever  possessed 
— Alexander  Hamilton — in  a  duel  with  a  worthless  ad- 
venturer who  was  determined  *  to  murder  him,  and  when 

'   The  Times,  Feb.  nth,  1841. 

2  Quoted  in  Steinmetz's  Romance  of  Duelling,  vol.  ii.  p.  366. 

^  History  of  Duelling,  vol.  i.  p.  179. 

*  Bentham,  on  hearing  from  Burr's  lips  the  account  of  this  duel 
said,  "it  was  nothing  less  than  murder."  See  Bentham! s  Works, 
voL  xi 


SOUTHERN  PROTESTS  AGAINST  DUELLING.     397 

Hamilton,  disapproving  the  practice,  fired  into  the  air. 
The  feeling  throughout  the  country  at  this  useless  sacrifice, 
aided  much  in  breaking  up  the  practice  in  the  Free  States. 
The  savage  influence  of  the  slave  system  kept  it  up  fo( 
many  years,  especially  in  Washington,  wh.ere  the  members 
from  Free  and  Slave  States  met  in  bitter  discussion.  It 
was,  however,  a  Southern  statesman — Gen.  Pinckney,  of 
South  Carolina — who,  after  Hamilton's  death,  addressed 
in  1804  a  celebrated  memorial  against  duelling  to  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Assembly  of  South  Carolina. 

"Your  memorialists,"  he  says,  "are  deeply  impressed  with  grief  at 
ihe  prevalence  of  the  custom  of  duelling,  which  trampling  on  all  laws, 
human  and  divine,  sweeps  off  many  useful  citizens,  leaving  the  families 
a  prey  to  sorrow,  and  often  to  poverty  and  vice.  That  this  custom 
originated  in  dark  and  barbarous  ages,  when  a  regular  and  impartial 
administration  of  justice  was  unknown  and  unpractised,  etc.  That 
restraining  personal  resentments  by  giving  the  attribute  of  vengeance 
to  the  laws,  was  the  greatest  victory  obtained  by  civilization  over 
barbarism,  but  the  custom  of  duelling  is  too  well  calculated  to  defeat 
the  beneficent  effects  of  that  triumph,  and  to  weaken  the  effect  of  all 
laws,  etc.  That  the  pretence  of  those  who  would  excuse  this  custom 
on  the  ground  that  it  polishes  society  and  prevents  assassination,  is 
wholly  unfounded  ;  .  .  .  a  custom,  which  though  in  direct  hos- 
tility of  the  principles  of  Christianity,  prevails  only  in  Christian 
iilurope  and  America." 

Again  still  later  (in  1838)  it  was  a  Southerner,  Henry 
Clay,  who  in  a  debate  on  a  bill  to  prohibit  duelling  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  said,  as  the  last  word  in  the  debate, 
"  When  public  opinion  is  renovated  and  chastened  by ' 
religion,  reason  and  humanity,  the  practice  of  duelling  will 
be  at  once  discountenanced." 

This  bill,  it  should  be  remarked,  passed  with  only  a 
single  vote  in  the  negative.  So  in  every  State,  strict  laws 
were  passed  against  duelling,  and  provisions  against  it 
included  in  the  constitution  of  many  even  of  the  Slave 
States.     The  rules  and  regulations  governing  the  United 


398  GESfA    CHRISTI. 

States  army  strictly  forbade  it.  But  all  this  was  of  no 
avail.  Public  opinion  even  in  the  North  for  a  long  time 
upheld  it ;  and  in  the  South,  the  influence  of  slavery  and 
the  society  based  upon  it,  preserved  the  custom  till  within 
a  very  few  years.  The  gradual  permeation  of  the  people 
by  Christian  ideas  and  by  right  reason,  has  finally  utterly 
done  away  with  duelling  in  the  Free  States  ;  while  the 
same  causes  with  the  destruction  of  a  slave  oligarchy  at 
the  South,  have  gradually  uprooted  it  there.  It  is  not 
found  in  practice  that  the  abolition  of  duelling,  as  was 
so  freely  predicted,  has  increased  assassination  or  cases 
of  bodily  attacks ;  nor  does  it  make  language  in  political 
debates  more  personal  or  violent.  Politeness  of  manner 
through  the  Union  is  even  more  common  than  in  the  times 
when  challenges  were  so  customary.  Political  debates  are 
no  more  abusive,  and  on  the  whole,  less  so,  than  under 
the  duelling  regime.  Instances  of  personal  violence  and 
murderous  conflict  are  more  rare  in  all  the  States.  The 
press,  often  vituperative  enough,  is  not  as  bad  as  it  was 
when  a  scandalous  article  brought  after  it  a  challenge. 
The  whole  country  has  been  much  softened  by  religion 
and  the  progress  of  civilization.  Courage  has  been  suffi- 
ciently tested  in  the  awful  ordeal  of  civil  war.  Public 
opinion  has  been  elevated  and  Christianized.  Laws  ex- 
press the  higher  feeling  on  this  subject,  and  are  executed. 
The  duel,  as  will  be  in  some  distant  day  with  war,  is 
simply  regarded  as  a  relic  of  a  barbarous  age  and  will 
soon  utterly  pass  out  of  use  or  observance. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

PRISON   REFORM   AND   CHARITIES. 

It  is  certainly  one  of  the  marked  steps  in  humane  progress 
among  civilized  nations,  that  the  convict  and  prisoner  for 
crime  or  transgression  is  no  longer  merely  left  to  his 
punishment,  or  treated  with  brutality  and  unnecessary 
cruelty.  There  is  scarcely  a  trace  in  the  ancient  world 
of  any  important  attempt  to  reform  the  offender  against 
human  law  or  to  render  his  confinement  less  miserable. 
It  was  seldom  remembered  that  many  offenders  are  only 
technical  violators  of  human  legislation,  and  that  many 
others  are  led  into  crime  by  the  entire  neglect  of  their 
education  by  the  community. 

Prison  reform  began  under  Christian  influences,  as  we 
have  previously  shown,  during  the  reign  of  the  first 
(nominally)  Christian  Emperor  of  Rome.  Constantine's 
legislation  (320  A.D.)  thus  provides  for  improvement  in 
the  treatment  of  convicts.  Those  accused  of  crimes  are 
to  be  examined  with  promptness  and  not  to  be  detained 
in  confinement,  while  those  arrested  are  to  be  confined  in 
a  humane  manner.  The  cells  are  to  be  furnished  with 
means  for  air  and  light.  Persons  under  accusation  are 
not  to  be  put  in  jails  or  scourged,  but  are  to  be  placed 
under  "  military  arrest "  and  in  a  prison  open  to  the  light^ 

In  340  a  law  forbade  the  mingling  of  sexes  in  prison.' 

'  Cod.  Theod,  lib.  ix.  tit.  4.  ^  Ibid.,  tit  I. 

399 


400  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

The  Emperor  Honorius  cliarged  the  judges  to  visit  the 
prisons  every  Sunday,  to  see  that  the  prisoners  received 
sufficient  nourishment  and  to  take  care  that  propei 
humanity  be  shown  the  convicts  by  the  jailers.^ 

In  549  the  Council  of  Clermont  orders  the  prisons  to 
be  visited  every  Sunday  by  the  archdeacon  or  some  other 
church  official,  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  the  prisoners. 

The  great  reform  of  European  prisons  commenced  by 
Howard,  is  most  clearly  a  fruit  of  the  teachings  of  the 
"  Friend  of  man."  Every  line  of  the  private  journals  of 
this  devoted  philanthropist,  his  dying  words  and  prayers, 
show  the  religious  inspiration  which  prompted  his  effi^rts. 
"  Do  Thou,  O  Lord ! "  says  this  friend  of  the  unfortunate, 
a  little  before  his  death,  "  visit  the  prisoners  and  captives 
and  manifest  Thy  strength  in  my  weakness.  Help,  Al- 
mighty God !  for  in  Thee  do  I  put  my  trust,  for  Thou 
art  my  rock."^ 

A  biographer  says  of  him:  "The  mid-day  sun  is  not 
more  evidently  the  cause  of  light  and  warmth  and  fruitful- 
ness,  than  that  Christian  love  which  animated,  induced 
and  constrained  Howard  to  consecrate  himself  entirely 
to  God's  service,  and  to  sacrifice  life  rather  than  that 
fellow-men  should  suffer  whom  he  might  assist  and  re- 
lieve." ^ 

The  great  reforms  of  this  century  in  the  treatment  of 
convicts  and  prisoners ;  the  individual  moral  influences, 
the  stimulus  introduced  of  hope  and  a  kind  of  moral  pro- 
bation within  prison  walls,  the  grading  and  separation  of 
prisoners,  the  introduction  of  schools,  libraries  and  the 
services  of  religion  to  those  under  the  sentence  of  the  law, 

»  Cod.  T/ieod.,  lib.  xi.  tit.  2',\ 
*  Life  of  Howard  (Field's),  p.  4. 
"  Ibid.^  p.  65. 


PRISO.Y-REFORM  UNDER   CHRISTIANITY.         401 

the  gradual  avoidance  of  degrading  and  useless  penalties, 
the  employment  of  more  humane  and  conscientious  prison 
officers,  the  use  of  reformatory  as  well  as  deterrent  mea- 
sures in  the  treatment  of  offenders,  in  fine,  the  best  features 
of  the  "Irish"  prison  system — all  these  are  the  clear 
and  natural  fruits  of  Christian  teachings.  We  know  of  no 
similar  influence  among  those  sentenced  by  law  or  of 
similar  effects  under  any  other  religious  system.  To  the 
modern  believer  as  well  as  to  the  ancient,  Christ  still  goes 
down  among  the  weary  and  heavy-laden,  the  prisoner  and 
captive,  and  attempts  to  lift  the  heavy  burdens,  and  the 
true  follower  seeks  to  walk  in  His  footsteps.  The  great 
conventions  of  prison  reformers  and  those  who  would  ele- 
vate and  improve  the  lot  of  convicts  and  prisoners,  held  in 
all  civilized  countries,  are  only  another  appropriate  expres- 
sion of  human  sympathy  under  the  inspiration  of  the 
"Teacher  of  Galilee." 

The  immense  reforms  in  the  prison  system  of  the 
United  States  are  a  striking  feature  of  the  times.  We 
read  in  American  colonial  history  that  a  preacher  in  the 
principal  Philadelphia  prison  was  obliged  to  be  supported 
by  a  cannon  with  a  lighted  match  at  hand  ;  that  the  Con- 
necticut prisoners  were  kept  in  one  place  ^  in  underground 
cells  dripping  with  moisture,  where  the  light  of  day  never 
penetrated,  and  where  vice  and  riot  prevailed  ;  that  in  the 
leading  city,  New  York,  old  and  young,  male  and  female, 
sane  and  insane,  innocent  and  criminal,  were  confined  in 
jails  together;  that  drunkenness,  debauchery,  profanity  and 
rioting  ruled  in  these  places,  so  that  all  prisons  and  jails 
became  schools  of  crime.  Neither  hope  nor  religion  ever 
entered  these  abodes  of  misery. 

It  was  the  Christian  spirit  that  inspired  the  first  great 
effort  in  the  United  States  to  save  the  youthful  criminal, 
*  The  Simsbury  mine. 

D  D 


402  CESTA    CHRISTI. 

in  founding  in  1824  the  first  American  Reformatory — the 
New  York  House  of  Refuge.  The  same  inspiration  has 
gradually  lightened  the  fate  of  the  prisoner  and  sought  to 
reform  him,  until,  in  1874,  the  following  were  some  of  the 
practical  fruits  of  this  great  influence  among  the  re- 
formatories of  the  United  States. 

There  were,  in  1874,  in  twenty  States  and  one  Territory, 
thirty-four  reformatories  for  youthful  criminals  ;  they  owned 
in  the  aggregate  6,153  acres  of  land;  the  total  estimated 
value  of  buildings  and  land,  with  the  personal  property, 
was  $7,826,480 ;  the  average  number  of  inmates  was  8,924, 
and  the  whole  number  received  since  their  opening  was 
91,402,  of  whom  77,6y^  were  boys  and  13,724  girls;  the 
whole  number  of  persons  engaged  in  this  work  was  771, 
and  the  total  annual  cost  for  maintenance  was  $1,358,885, 
or  $152,  (about  ;^3o)  for  each  inmate.  Three- fourths  of 
the  inmates,  or  nearly  seventy  thousand,  are  reported  as 
permanently  reformed.  These  figures,  however,  are  to  be 
received  with  great  caution,  as  there  is  no  accurate  tabu- 
lating of  the  results. 

Educational  Charities. — It  may  be  urged  that  the  sym- 
pathy with  the  prisoner  is  indeed  humane,  and  a  mark  of 
progress  in  compassionate  feeling,  but  that  it  does  not 
necessarily  advance  mankind  or  prevent  crime  in  the 
future.  In  all  countries,  and  especially  in  the  United 
States,  have  arisen,  however,  movements  of  Christian 
philanthropy  directly  inspired  by  the  "  Friend  of  man," 
having  for  their  objects  to  root  out  criminality  and 
pauperism  in  the  germ  and  prevent  the  formation  of 
criminal  classes.  We  allude  to  the  educational  charities 
for  children,  especially  in  the  large  cities  like  New  York. 
This  is  a  feature  of  moral  advancement  unknown  to 
antiquity  and  scarcely  heard  of  except  where  Christian 
teaching  has  reached. 


CHARITIES  FOR   CHILDREN.  403 

These  charities  take  the  homeless  and  unfortunate  victim 
of  poverty  or  vice — the  child  :  they  provide  him  shelter  and 
protection  while  cultivating  his  self-help ;  they  find  him 
labour,  give  him  education,  put  him  under  the  best  habits 
of  civilization,  throw  around  him  religious  influences,  and 
at  length  place  him  in  a  compassionate  family  on  a  farm 
where  he  can  work  in  the  ground. 

If  a  girl,  devoted  women  of  the  fortunate  classes  seek  to 
lead  her  to  better  things.  The  habits  in  which  she  has 
lived  are  met  by  influences  of  industry,  order  and  purity ; 
she  is  improved  day  by  day,  until  at  length  she  too  is 
transplanted  to  a  good  home. 

The  agencies  through  which  these  influences  are  con- 
veyed, the  lodging-house,  industrial  school,  emigration  plan, 
and  the  like  are  skilfully  contrived  to  elevate  the  class 
through  natural  means.  It  is  not  surprising  that  after 
twenty-five  years  ^  of  these  charities  the  prison  statistics 
of  New  York  should  show  distinct  and  encouraging  evi- 
dences of  the  diminution  of  juvenile  crime  and  vagrancy 
against  many  local  evils  and  obstacles,  and  that  fifty 
thousand  children  are  reported  as  rescued  from  the  vice 
and  misery  of  New  York  and  turned  into  self-supporting 
and  industrious  farmers  and  housekeepers. 

These  and  similar  movements  throughout  England  and 
the  United  States  are  a  plain  and  natural  fruit  of  Chris- 
tianity. They  are  inspired  by  Him  who  bore  the  burdens 
of  men  and  was  especially  the  Friend  of  the  poor.  There 
seems  no  reason  why,  under  the  same  impulse,  they  should 
not  increase  and  become  one  of  the  great  curative  move- 
ments of  society  to  remedy  its  most  threatening  evils. 

It  is  almost  a  common  place  to  say  that  all  the  varied 
and  blessed  institutions  of  charity  throughout  Christendom, 
all  the  asylums,  hospitals  and  reformatories,  the  provisions 
•  See  The  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York^  by  the  Author. 


404  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

for  the  lame,  blind  and  deaf,  for  the  idiot  and  insane,  foi 
the  sick  of  every  possible  disease,  for  the  widow  and 
orphan  and  homeless,  for  the  aged  and  infirm,  are  only 
blossoms  and  fruit  of  the  life  and  teachings  and  death  of 
the  great  Benefactor.  They  are  the  true  victories  of  Christ 
— the  Gesta  Chris ti. 

To  these  must  be  added  a  more  humble  but  not  less 
significant  expression  of  sympathy  in  modern  society,  the 
efforts  to  care  for  the  dumb  animals,  those  patient  instru- 
ments of  man's  convenience ;  to  alleviate  their  inevitable 
sufferings,  to  restrain  the  tyranny  of  their  masters,  and  to 
prevent  any  unnecessary  pain. 

Many  societies  have  been  formed  in  the  United  States 
and  other  countries  to  prevent  cruelty  to  animals  and  to 
check  any  useless  suffering  in  scientific  operations  with 
them.  There  is  little  doubt  that  these  compassionate 
efforts,  which  find  their  strongest  support  among  women, 
have  made  the  lot  of  dumb  brutes  much  more  endurable 
in  many  civilized  countries. 

They  are  not,  however,  peculiar  to  the  followers  of 
Christianity.  The  Buddhists  have  often  been  equally 
merciful,  and  in  some  Oriental  countries  great  sympathy 
for  animals  seems  consistent  with  great  indifference  to 
human  suffering.^ 

Humanization  of  Punishments. — One  remarkable  advance 
in  humanity,  due  to  religious  forces,  should  not  be 
passed  over — the  gradual  mitigation  of  severe  and  "  afllic- 
tive  "  punishments  to  those  sentenced  by  the  law,  and  the 
doing  away  with  degrading  penalties,  We  do  not  regard 
the  Christian  system  as  necessarily  opposed  to  the  death 
punishment  in  all  cases,  but  as  aiming  to  limit  it  to  only 

'  See  passage  quoted,  Chapter  XXX"^'l.  pa>;e  447,  of  a  traveller's  ex- 
perience in  India. 


THE  DEATH  PENALTY. 


40s 


the  most  extreme  instances  of  crime.  Nor  are  the  Christian 
teachings  responsible  for  any  of  the  false  sentiment  of  the 
modern  world  towards  those  guilty  of  crime.  The  teach- 
ings of  Christ  and  the  apostles  evidently  do  not  look  upon 
death  as  the  greatest  of  evils  ;  nor  do  they  discourage 
severe  penalties  on  wrong-doers.  There  is  no  direct 
instruction  in  regard  to  the  death  penalty  any  more  than 
on  a  thousand  similar  topics.  The  inference  from  the 
teachings  might  fairly  be,  that  so  valuable  a  thing  as 
human  life,  with  the  tremendous  destinies  of  the  soul,  must 
be  very  carefully  and  reverently  dealt  with,  not  sacrificed 
except  for  the  very  highest  interests  of  the  community,  and 
that  humanity  towards  even  the  most  guilty  must  guide 
human  actions.  It  is  certainly  possible  that  under  these 
principles  the  punishment  by  death  will  gradually  pass 
away,  as  have  the  strappado  and  the  rack. 

The  natural  effect  of  these  teachings,  however,  from  the 
beginning  was  against  any  degrading  penalties.  Even  the 
laws  of  Constantine  show  this,  where  they  forbid  any 
marring  of  the  beauty  and  dignity  of  the  human  face 
made  in  the  Divine  image.^ 

They  equally  oppose  any  penalty  which  brutalizes  the 
offender  or  the  spectator.  The  criminal  may  deserve 
severe  pains  and  punishment,  but  this  Faith  would  en- 
courage no  penalty  which  in  its  nature  makes  him  worse, 
or  which  in  its  natural  effect  degrades  the  on-lookers  and 
society  in  general.  It  does  not  object  to  the  offender 
suffering  pain  and  loss,  but  this  must  be  of  a  nature  to 
reform  him  and  benefit  others.  The  penalty  must  not  be 
useless,  or  degrading,  or  crushing,  or  brutalizing  to  the 
world.  The  prison  administration  is  to  be  guided  by  love 
and  severity  combined. 

1  Cod.  Theod.,  lib  ix.  tit.  40;  1,9. 


4o6  GESTA   CHRISTL 

The  progress  in  this  matter  has  been  remarkable  in  the 
modern  ages.  In  the  Classical  and  Middle  Age  periods, 
such  punishments  as  crucifixion,  exposure  to  wild  beasts, 
burying  alive,  impaling,  tearing  to  pieces,  and  breaking  on 
the  wheel  were  common. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  powers  of  human  invention 
were  continually  employed  in  devising  instruments  and 
machines  for  the  production  of  pain. 

Screws  were  invented  for  compressing  the  thumbs ; 
straight  boots  of  iron  for  enclosing  the  legs,  between  which 
and  the  flesh  wedges  were  driven  by  mallets  ;  racks  of 
various  and  hideous  forms,  capable  of  occasioning  the  most 
exquisite  agony,  were  constantly  devised.  We  have 
already  described  the  stj'appado'^  (p.  i8i)  ;  another  agonis- 
ing punishment  was  "  picketing,"  where  the  offender  was 
suspended  so  that  the  weight  of  his  body  was  supported 
by  a  spike  on  which  he  was  made  to  stand  with  one  foot;^ 
and  still  another  was  the  use  of  the  "wooden  horse,"^ 
a  narrow  ledge  or  board  on  which  the  criminal  was  made 
to  sit  astride  with  weights  fastened  to  his  legs.  Ducking 
or  half  drowning  was  often  employed  even  for  trivial 
offences. 

Bentham  relates*  that  a  description  of  the  various 
methods  of  inflicting  torture  and  punishment  which  had 
been  in  use  in  the  Austrian  dominions,  was  ordered  by  the 
Empress  Maria  Theresa  to  be  drawn  up,  this  investigation 
being  made  with  a  view  to  ameliorate  the  existing  laws. 
A  large  folio  volume  was  accordingly  put  forth,  containing 
engravings  of  the  instruments  of  torture,  and  all  the 
methods  of  execution.  The  book  was  only  exposed  for 
sale  a  few  days  when  the  prime  minister,  Prince  Kaunitz 

*  See  Bentham's  Works,  vol.  i,  p.  413. 
a  Ibid.  '  Ibid. 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  413. 


CRUEL  PUNISHMENTS.  A07 

ordered  it  to  be  suppressed,  for  fear  that  it  would  inspire  a 
horror  of  the  laws. 

In  England,  high  treason  was  punished  by  dragging  at 
the  horse's  tail,  through  the  streets,  from  the  prison  to  the 
place  of  execution  ;  or  by  plucking  out  and  burning  the 
entrails,  while  the  patient  was  yet  alive ;  or  by  hanging 
by  the  neck  so  as  not  to  destroy  life ;  also  by  beheading, 
quartering,  and  the  exposure  of  the  fragments  of  the  body 
in  such  places  as  the  king  should  direct.  Under  the  pro- 
gress of  the  humane  sentiment,  this  has  all  been  changed 
to  beheading  and  hanging. 

Even  in  this  century  most  frightful  punishments  were 
inflicted  in  the  British  West  Indies  on  negroes  breaking  the 
laws — punishments  as  savage  as  anything  in  the  bloody 
history  of  the  past.  In  the  time  of  George  III.,  public 
whipping  for  dog-stealing  was  common  in  England,  and 
the  common  law  enforced  the  slitting  of  nostrils  and 
cutting  of  ears  for  many  offences.  In  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.,  the  mere  drawing  blood  in  the  palace  in  a  quarrel 
was  punished  by  the  loss  of  the  right  hand  ;  and  in  that 
of  Elizabeth,  "  the  export  of  sheep  "  brought  after  it  the 
loss  of  the  left  hand.  Branding  and  whipping  have  been 
common  in  all  countries. 

Within  fifty  years,  men  have  been  hanged  in  England 
for  sheep-stealing  and  stealing  in  a  house  ;  and  in  the  early 
history  of  the  United  States,  many  offences,  like  forgery, 
stealing,  and  horse-stealing  brought  the  death  penalty 
after  them. 

In  Massachusetts,  under  the  early  legislation  after  the 
Revolution,  ten  different  crimes  were  punished  with  death, 
among  them  being  burglary  ;  blasphemy  was  punished 
with  pillory  and  stripes  till  the  year  1829  ;  branding  was 
employed  for  several  offences.  In  Pennsylvania,  in  1776, 
twenty  crimes  were  liable  to  the  death  penalty,  among 


4o8  GESTA    CHRISTL 

them  such  offencrs  as  witchcraft  and  counterfeiting.  In 
Virginia  and  Kentucky,  twenty-seven  offences  were  pun- 
ished by  death  or  maiming ;  among  them  perjury,  the 
destroying  or  concealing  of  a  will,  the  obtaining  of  money 
or  goods  on  false  pretences,  horse-stealing,  and  the  like. 
In  New  York,  on  several  occasions  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  negroes  were  burned  alive  for  extreme  crimes,  and 
the  tread-mill  was  in  use  as  late  as  1822. 

The  public  whipping-post  now  only  survives  in  some  of 
the  old  Slave  States  in  America,  and  will  soon  be  ranked 
with  the  pillory  or  the  strappado.  Whipping  as  a  penalty 
is  still  inflicted  by  law  in  England  for  very  brutal  offences, 
such  as  wife-beating  and  the  like.  The  humane  opinion, 
however,  of  the  United  States  is  opposed  to  it,  on  the 
ground  that  it  brutalizes  and  degrades  not  only  the 
criminal,  but  his  associates.  A  result  of  this  and  other 
causes  is,  that  in  no  other  country  are  brutal  crimes  so 
rare.  The  tread-mill,  also,  is  mainly  abolished  there. 
Whipping  is  still  sometimes  employed  by  prison  officials 
on  refractory  criminals,  and  other  severe  prison  penalties 
are  used  (often  too  freely),  but  public  opinion  is  adverse  to 
their  frequent  employment.  All  public  degrading  penalties, 
such  as  the  stocks,  the  pillory,  branding  and  the  like,  have 
mainly  passed  away  in  the  United  States.  In  some  of  the 
old  Slave  States  gangs  of  negro  prisoners  are  still  em- 
ployed on  public  works  ;  but,  in  general,  punishment  is 
private  and  reformatory. 

Among  other  merciful  reforms,  executions  are  made 
private,  and  are  only  inflicted  where  murder  is  clearly 
proved  and  of  an  aggravated  character.  They  are  destined 
evidently  to  be  less  and  less  common. 

Imprisonment  for  Debt. — One  of  the  frightful  abuses  of 
the  past  was  imprisonment  for  debt.  It  is  perfectly  just 
that  a  person    should  be    punished,   who  wrongfully  and 


DEBTORS'  PRISONS.  409 

knowingly  defrauds  another  of  his  property.  But  so  large 
a  proportion  of  debts  are  incurred  with  the  best  of  motives, 
accident  and  misfortune  so  often  cause  inability  to  pay, 
and  the  degradation  of  the  debtor  to  the  level  of  the 
criminal  and  pauper  has  so  bad  an  influence  on  a  large 
class,  that  Christianized  and  humane  sentiment  is  opposed 
to  imprisonment  as  a  punishment  for  non-payment ;  while 
the  modern  experience  is  that  the  severe  punishment  does 
not  necessarily  tend  to  make  the  community  more  honest 
or  the  recovery  of  debts  easier. 

The  accounts  transmitted  of  the  treatment  of  debtors 
in  England  and  America  in  the  past  century,  arc  harrow- 
ing. Thus  it  is  said  that  in  the  eighteenth  century,  four 
thousand  unhappy  individuals  were  committed  to  prison 
every  year  for  misfortune  and  poverty,  and  treated  like 
criminals  and  outcasts.  "  One  indiscreet  compact  could 
doom  a  wretch  to  a  life-long  confinement;"^  a  small  debt 
exposed  the  unhappy  person  to  perpetual  imprisonment. 
Oglethorpe  succeeded  in  1728,  with  the  help  of  parliament, 
in  delivering  from  jails  great  multitudes  of  these  unhappy 
creatures. 

In  the  United  States,  even  as  late  as  1829,  it  was 
estimated  that  there  were  as  many  as  3,000  of  these  un- 
fortunate persons  confined  in  the  prisons  of  Massachusetts  ; 
10,000  in  New  York  ;  7,000  in  Pennsylvania ;  3,000  in 
Maryland,  and  a  like  proportion  in  other  States.  In  many 
of  these  debtors'  prisons  no  provision  was  made  for  sick- 
ness, or  even  for  ordinary  cleanliness  or  comfort.  There 
was  often  no  separation  of  sexes ;  and  these  victims  of 
misfortune  were  confined  with  robbers,  vagrants  and  mur- 
derers. 

Between  1821  and  1845,  imprisonment  for  debt  in  the 

•  Bancroft, 


4IO  GESTA    CHRISTl. 

various    United    States    was    abolished,    except    in    cases 
where  fraud  was  reasonably  suspected. 

The  bloody  era  of  the  past,  when  man  under  the  forms 
of  law  could  inflict  such  useless  torture  and  pain  on  the 
offender,  is  over.  The  humanity  of  Christ  enters  the 
prison,  and  fills  it  with  hope  and  the  sentiment  of  human 
brotherhood ;  it  excludes  bloody  and  useless  and  de- 
grading penalties ;  it  aims  at  reform  as  well  as  punish- 
ment ;  it  seeks  to  do  away  with  the  gallows  by  the  power 
of  the  school  and  the  religious  teacher. 

T/ie  Sunday. — It  is  not  enough  considered  by  students 
of  progress,  how  great  a  gift  to  the  labouring  classes  and 
to  the  whole  world  is  the  Christian  Sunday.  It  has  be- 
come so  great  a  necessity  to  the  civilized  world,  that  the 
wonder  is  how  the  non-Christian  races  or  classic  peoples 
were  able  to  do  without  such  a  day. 

Plato  says  somewhere  that  leisure  is  necessary  to  the 
acquisition  of  virtue,  and  that  therefore  no  working  man 
can  acquire  it.  Plutarch  calls  it  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  happy  inventions  of  Lycurgus,  that  he  obtained  for 
the  citizens  the  greatest  leisure  by  forbidding  them  to 
occupy  themselves  witii  any  mercenary  work.  ^ 

Christianity  early  obtained  for  the  working  classes  of 
the  Roman  empire  this  great  blessing,  and  not  through 
the  Greek  method,  of  creating  a  class  of  helpless  helots, 
but  by  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

Under  the  prodigious  impulse  of  the  leading  races  of 
modern  times  toward  production  and  the  acquiring  of 
material  wealth,  there  would  have  come,  without  some 
such  day,  an  absolute  breaking  down  of  the  physical  power, 
a   wearing  out  of  the  brain,  and  a  correspcinding  mora) 

'  Code,  iii.  411,  11. 
'  Lye,  24. 


THE  LORD'S  DAY   TO  LABOURERS.  411 

degeneracy.  In  fact  the  Christian  Sabbath  may  be  said 
to  have  saved  the  modern  European  and  Anglo-American 
races.  Had  the  greed  for  money  never  known  an  enforced 
rest ;  had  the  wheels  of  the  factory,  the  hum  of  the  market 
and  din  of  business  sounded  through  the  streets  seven  days 
as  now  through  six,  and  no  customary  day  called  away 
thoughts  to  things  not  bought  or  sold  and  to  principles 
unseen  and  eternal,  the  modern  people  might  have  run 
down  to  the  lowest  point  of  materialism. 

The  Lord's  Day  is  the  greatest  external  gift  of  the 
Christian  religion  to  the  working  classes.  The  labourer  is 
insured  his  rest.  His  production  is  apparently  cut  short 
one-seventh,  but  as  in  the  limiting  the  hours  of  a  day's 
labour,  he  is  found  to  effect  more  in  the  year,  owing  to  the 
refreshment  and  rest  given,  and  his  moral  value  is  in- 
creased. Where  the  Sunday  is  made  a  social  and  religious 
day  (as  in  New  England)  without  excessive  strictness, 
the  working  man  or  woman  returns  to  the  task,  revived, 
and  morally  as  well  as  physically  strengthened. 

A  religious  Sunday  is  the  best  safeguard  against  the 
vice  of  the  labouring  class,  intemperance. 

In  the  chapters  on  Roman  Law,  we  have  shown  what  a 
step  in  humanity  was  the  enforced  rest  of  the  Sunday  to 
Roman  slaves,  after  the  empire  became  nominally  Christian. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  law  under  Christian  influences,  was 
equally  regardful  of  the  rest  of  the  Sunday  to  the  British 
slave  and  serf  In  all  countries  under  the  nominal  teach- 
ings of  Jesus,  that  day  has  relaxed  the  muscles  of  toil, 
wiped  away  the  sweat  of  incessant  labour,  and  restored 
the  worker  to  his  family,  reminding  him  that  he  is  some- 
thing beside  an  instrument  of  gain,  and  that  he  has 
other  wants  than  those  of  earth. 

The  business  and  professional  man  of  modern  days  owes 
fully   as    much  to  this   blessed    day.      It  is  a  festival  of 


412  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

humanity  ;  it  re.ninds  the  fortunate  of  their  duties  to  the 
unfortunate ;  it  calls  away  the  mind  from  things  material 
to  the  truths  which  belong  to  all  times.  It  compels  the 
scheming  brain  to  rest.  It  is  the  day  above  all  to  remem- 
ber Him  who  has  brought  such  unmingled  blessings  to 
humanity. 

If  the  world  by  any  madness  or  degeneracy  should  ever 
renounce  its  faith  in  the  supernatural,  it  would  be  com- 
pelled to  renew  the  Sabbath  under  some  other  name;  so 
indispensable  is  it  for  human  progress. 

We  may  surely  count  the  Christian  Sunday  as  one  of 
the  most  blessed  institutions  conferred  on  the  race  by 
this  faith. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

CO-OPERATION   AND   PAUPERISM. 

Christianity,  as  we  have  frequently  said,  only  touches 
indirectly  on  the  distribution  of  the  profits  of  labour.  It 
inculcates  constant  benevolence,  unselfishness,  and  con- 
tinual imparting  of  wealth  to  the  necessities  of  others ;  it 
discourages  excessive  accumulation,  and  teaches  especial 
sympathy  with  the  poor  and  labouring  classes.  There  is 
an  ideal  taught  by  it  in  regard  to  property,  which,  like  its 
ideal  in  respect  to  war,  mankind  has  not  yet  reached. 
Property  is  evidently  to  be  held  for  the  good  of  others, 
and  not  for  selfish  enjoyment  or  the  aggrandizement  of 
a  family.  The  employers  of  labour  are  to  be  guided  by 
the  golden  rule,  and  to  hold  each  one  employed  as  a 
"  brother  in  the  Lord."  The  modes  in  which  this  benevo- 
lent principle  is  to  be  expressed  to  the  world  will  be 
various.  Without  doubt,  "  co-operation "  is  precisely  in 
the  direction  of  the  Christian  law. 

It  tends  to  reduce  the  selfishness  of  trade  and  com- 
petition, it  diminishes  the  deceit  and  falsehood  which 
belong  to  some  branches  of  business,  it  makes  the  buyer 
and  seller  one  in  interest  and  brotherly  feeling,  and  it 
plants  among  men  the  seeds  of  brotherhood  which  Christ 
teaches.  Its  obvious  influence  is  to  bring  into  one  body 
the  labourers  and  capitalists  of  the    /orld,  making  them 

4x3 


414  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

feel   that   their   interests  are    the   same,  and   their   rights 
equally  to  be  respected. 

This  does  not,  however,  include  as  a  corollary  that  in- 
dividual property  shall  come  to  an  end.  It  may  indeed 
tend  to  limit  its  accumulation,  but  the  more  probable 
tendency  of  the  Christian  principle  will  be  in  the  future 
towards  a  careful  distribution  of  wealth  for  the  good  of 
others,  in  promoting  science,  art,  charities,  and  education, 
and  in  curing  the  inevitable  ills  of  humanity. 

Commerce,  production,  and  trade  as  they  are  now 
conducted,  cannot  be  considered  the  final  and  completed 
condition  of  mankind. 

Selfishness  and  dishonesty  are  too  much  its  features  to 
be  consistent  with  the  Christian  ideal.  In  all  probability 
some  form  of  co-operation  will  be  the  final  and  Christian 
form  in  which  production  and  distribution  will  develop 
themselves,  where  the  interests  of  customer  and  dealer,  of 
manufacturer  and  workman,  of  capitalist  and  labourei, 
are  correlative,  and  Christian  and  just  principles  govern  all. 

Communism. — There  is  no  doubt  in  many  of  the  aspira- 
tions and  aims  of  communism,  a  certain  marked  sympathy 
or  harmony  with  the  ideals  of  Christianity. 

What  is  best  in  it  has  come  from  the  teachings  of 
Galilee.  The  sense  of  human  brotherhood  between  rich 
and  poor,  the  sympathy  with  the  unhappy  labouring 
masses  of  the  world,  the  duty  of  allowing  every  human 
being  the  highest  possible  use  of  his  faculties,  the  aversion 
to  the  deceit  and  fraud  so  often  characterising  commerce, 
and  the  opposition  to  the  selfishness  of  competition,  the 
horror  of  war  of  the  Socialists,  the  aspect  of  property  as 
a  fund  for  the  good  of  all — all  these  are  plainly  reflec- 
tions from  that  light  which  shone  eighteen  centuries  ago, 
from  the  hills  of  Judea. 

Some  of  the  Socialistic  writers  feel  this;  thus  Proudhon 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIALISM.  415 

says,  "  Love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,  and  society  will  be 
perfect ;  love  thy  neighbour,  and  all  distinctions  of  prince 
and  shepherd,  of  rich  and  poor,  of  learned  and  ignorant 
disappear,  all  the  contrarieties  of  human  interests  vanish  ; 
love  thy  neighbour,  and  happiness  with  labour,  without 
any  anxiety  for  the  future  will  fill  thy  days."^ 

Mario  2  also  says,  "  The  heathenish  principle  is,  grant  to 
the  few  enjoyment  at  the  expense  of  the  many  ;  Christian 
principle  demands  a  moral  regard  for  those  natural  con- 
ditions which  ensure  general  prosperity  with  a  view  to 
effect  the  highest  possible  happiness  for  all  in  due  propor- 
tion." 

Christianity  of  course  recommends  no  definite  system 
for  applying  its  humane  principles,  and  therefore  has  no 
sympathy  with  Socialism  in  its  plans  for  grouping  human 
beings,  or  the  power  it  would  give  to  the  State,  or  its 
hostility  to  propert}^  as  such,  or  its  methods  of  dividing  the 
returns  from  labour,  or  its  phalansteries  or  communities  ; 
indeed  the  Christian  view  of  marriage  and  the  family 
is  directly  opposed  to  that  of  many  (though  not  all) 
Socialists. 

The  point  of  view  however  of  both  is  somewhat  similar, 
and  some  of  the  objects  identical. 

The  Christian,  like  the  Socialist,  feels  that  this  depres- 
sion and  abject  poverty  and  dependence  of  great  masses  of 
human  beings  is  not  the  ideal  of  humanity  ;  that  the  fearful 
inequalities  of  human  condition,  the  immense  wealth  of  the 
few  and  the  bitter  penury  or  daily  anxiety  of  the  many, 
the  intense  selfishness  of  competition  and  the  frauds  or 
deceits  of  trade,  the  greed  for  money  and  struggle  for  the 
prizes  of  life,  do  not  belong  to  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth,  promised  by  the  Master,  or  to  any  human  condition 

'  Syst.  des  Consid.  Econ.,  vol.  i.  p.  329. 
*  Quoted  by  Kaufmann,  Socialism,  p.  158. 


4i6  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

which  the  Friend  of  man  might  reasonabl}'  tliink  a  reward 
of  his  desires  and  his  struggles.  The  Christian  holds  the 
key  to  the  final  solution  of  all  these  problems.  How  and 
by  what  various  means  it  shall  be  applied  he  cannot  fully 
say  ;  the  method  must  be  the  result  of  careful  scientific 
study  of  all  the  conditions. 

Socialism  as  interfering  with  individual  development,  or 
producing  a  monotony  of  life,  or  destroying  the  identity 
of  the  family,  has  no  sympathy  from  Christianity. 

Insurance. — The  greatest  practical  benevolent  discovery 
of  modern  life,  and  one  destined  yet  to  produce  enormous 
effects  in  diminishing  poverty  and  relieving  misfortune — 
the  application  of  insurance  to  human  ills — is  not  directly 
;  fruit  of  Christianity,  and  yet  no  doubt  in  the  stimulus 
given  to  the  benevolent  feelings  by  this  Faith,  is  to  be 
found  its  indirect  source.  Insurance  is  the  application 
of  the  savings  of  the  fortunate  to  the  assistance  of  tho 
unfortunate,  and  yet  not  necessarily  through  benevolent 
motives.  This  ingenious  device  takes  advantage  of  a  self- 
regarding  impulse  to  promote  the  good  of  all.  Its  appli- 
cation more  and  more  to  relieve  the  misfortunes  of  the 
labouring  classes  through  government  annuities,  private 
life  insurance  provisions  against  accident,  sickness,  cala- 
mity and  old  age  made  by  savings  in  time  of  health  and 
prosperity  and  guaranteed  by  the  whole  community,  will 
be  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  of  modern  society,  and 
will  undoubtedly  be  stimulated,  if  not  caused  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Christ  in  the  world.  We  do  not  dwell  on  this 
important  topic  because  it  is  not  a  feature  of  progress 
directly  produced  by  the  Christian  religion,  though  under 
its  influence ;  yet  we  regard  it  as  the  mode  in  which  as 
civilization  advances  wealth  will  be  especially  distributed. 

It  is  not  an  unlikely  eventuality  that  in  a  distant  future 
all  men  and  women  can  be  guarded  against  the  inevitable 


INSURANCE  AGAINST  POVERTY.  417 

calamities  and  losses  of  life,  and  thus  preserved  from  sink- 
ing into  the  lowest  depths  of  misery,  by  a  wise  system  of 
insurance  by  society  or  government — the  insured  contri- 
buting a  fixed  annual  payment  during  health  and  strength 
(itself  a  preservative  from  pauperism),  and  the  State 
taking  charge  of  the  funds,  and  appropriating  from  taxa- 
tion enough  to  fill  out  the  necessary  annuity.  It  will  be  a 
kind  of  Christian  communism,  but  not  of  a  nature  to  pro- 
duce dependence,  because  the  ultimate  enjoyment  of  the 
insurance  would  depend  on  savings  made  during  health 
and  prosperity ;  but  it  would  be  a  poor  law,  or  taxation 
of  the  fortunate  for  the  benefit  of  the  unfortunate,  yet  in 
a  mode  to  promote  self-respect  and  human  brotherhood. 
Like  the  distribution  of  the  surplus  of  the  rich  now  made 
by  taxation  for  schools,  it  would  not  be  an  appropriation 
of  wealth  which  would  embitter  the  rich  or  pauperize  the 
poor. 

Perhaps  the  best  form  of  insurance,  as  in  harmony  with 
Christianity,  would  be  voluntary  annuity-associations,  made 
from  benevolent  motives  by  the  fortunate,  and  where  the 
surplus  needed  over  the  annual  premiums  to  form  com- 
fortable annuities,  was  contributed  by  the  charitable. 

As  we  have  often  argued  in  this  work,  the  influence  of 
the  great  Master  is  directly  to  lessen  one  of  the  greatest 
of  human  ills — Pauperism. 

The  self-control,  sobriety,  temperance  and  moderation 
He  teaches,  tend  to  a  certain  control  over  circumstances. 
The  good-will  He  encourages,  brings  sympathy  and  help 
from  others.  The  great  sources  of  poverty  are  idleness, 
intemperance  and  vice. 

The  Christian,  other  things  being  equal,  is  less  likely  to 
be  very  poor,  and  a  pauper  he  cannot  easily  be, — that  is 
he  cannot  have  that  spirit  of  dependence,  idleness  and 
dishonesty,  which  are  the  essentials  of  pauperism.     If  by 

E  E 


4i8  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

misfortune  he  come  to  the  lowest  depths  of  human  ills,  he 
bears  as  a  greater  One  hath  taught  him  to  bear,  and  does 
not  become  degraded  in  spirit.  Having  a  sense  of  his 
great  dignity  as  a  child  of  God,  and  one  for  whom  Christ 
hath  lived  and  died,  he  is  less  likely  to  become  a  parasite  on 
society  And  ever  being  in  the  mental  habit  of  looking  for- 
ward to  the  judgment  of  another  life,  he  will  be  the  more  apt 
to  provide  for  the  ills  of  this ;  so  under  Christianity  society 
tends,  as  has  often  been  seen  on  the  rugged  soil  and  under 
the  harsh  climate  of  New  England,  to  throw  off  pauperism 
and  eliminate  poverty.  Many  villages  are  known  in  that 
region,  apparently  so  little  favoured  otherwise  by  Provi- 
dence, where  not  a  pauper  and  scarcely  an  abjectly  poor 
person  can  be  found  for  miles  around  ; — the  causes  of  this 
good  fortune  being  mainly  moral. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  Religion  alone  in  future  ages  can 
remove  pauperism  from  the  world,  but  the  Christian  belief 
will  tend  towards  a  more  just  distribution  of  property ;  it 
will  promote  temperance  and  good  morals  ;  it  will  stimulate 
co-operation  between  labourers  and  between  labour  and 
capital ;  it  will  encourage  many  forms  of  insurance,  and 
above  all  elevate  and  train  the  character,  so  that  the  human 
being,  though  unfortunate,  cannot  be  degraded,  and  thus 
under  the  influence  of  Christ  on  the  world,  the  labouring 
classes  will  be  less  likely  to  fall  into  extreme  poverty,  and 
if  they  do  will  be  more  readily  assisted,  or  will  not  sink 
morally. 

The  Church  in  past  history,  especially  in  Europe,  has  so 
often  been  on  the  side  of  power  and  of  the  oppressor  ;  it 
apparently  now  feels  so  little  sympathy  there  in  the  great 
movements  of  social  reform,  that  the  labourer  and  the  over- 
burdened worker  may  well  be  pardoned  if  he  do  not  behold 
at  all  in  Christ  His  true  form,  that  of  the  Friend  of  the 
poor  and  heavy-laden  ;  but  gradually  as  light  spreads,  even 


THE  FRIEND   OF   THE  POOR.  419 

the  working  classes  of  Europe  will  see  that  no  influence  in 
human  history  has  ever  done  so  much  to  remove  the  heavy 
burdens  on  labouring  people,  to  produce  such  equitable  dis- 
tribution of  wealth,  to  lessen  the  ills  of  poverty,  and  give 
dignity  to  the  humble  toiler,  and  everywhere  to  promote 
human  brotherhood,  a.s  the  doctrine  and  life  of  the  Teacher 
of  Galilee. 

Cabet,  a  socialistic  writer,  Vv'cll  says : 

"  If  Christianity  had  been  interpreted  and  applied  in  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ,  if  it  had  been  well  known  and  faithfully  practised  by  the 
numerous  portions  of  Christians  who  are  animated  by  a  sincere  piety, 
and  who  have  only  need  to  know  truth  well  to  follow  it,  this  Christi 
anity,  its  morals,  its  philosophy,  its  precepts  would  have  sufficed  and 
would  still  suffice  to  establish  a  perfect  society  and  political  organi- 
zation, to  deliver  humanity  from  the  evil  which  weighs  it  down,  and  to 
assure  the  happiness  of  the  human  race  on  the  earth."' 

*  Le  vrai  Christianisme.     Preface. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

FREE  TRADE. — HUMANITY. — LIBERAL  GOVERNMENT. 

The  progress  of  mankind  under  the  Christian  ideal  has 
been  continually  towards  greater  unity  of  races  and  nations. 
The  Greek  and  Roman  contempt  for  the  foreigner  has 
passed  away  ;  the  Middle  Age  distrust  and  hostility  to 
the  stranger  and  "  far-comer  "  has  mainly  vanished,  except 
among  non-Christian  races.  Different  nations  are  approach- 
ing one  another  in  feeling,  ideas,  habits  and  interests. 
There  still  remain,  however,  the  relics  of  a  more  barbaric 
past  in  the  separation  made  between  different  peoples  or 
provinces  by  taxes  and  tariff  duties.  Yet  even  here  there 
is  progress.  It  is  only  about  900  years  since  a  London 
merchant,  trading  with  York,  Chester  or  Bristol,  paid 
duties  and  taxes  as  he  does  now  with  New  York  and  Havre, 
and  it  was  only  in  ion  A.D.  that  a  law  was  passed  estab- 
lishing free  trade  between  London  and  other  English 
towns.^ 

On  the  European  continent,  the  Rhine  for  centuries  was 
crossed  with  incessant  lines  of  tariff  at  every  border  of 
a   petty  province,  and    freedom   of  commerce    was    only 

^  The  men  of  London  are  to  be  safe  and  free  over  all  England,  and 
in  all  sea-ports,  from  toll,  transit-duty  and  tonnage  and  all  other  duties 
(Hen.  I.  2,  4).  "  If  any  one  takes  toll  or  custom  from  the  citizens  of 
London,  the  citizens  may  take  as  much  from  the  burg  with  damages  " 
(Hen.  1.  2,  9). 


FREE   TRADE.  421 

secured  by  armed  leagues  of  cities  ;  in  like  manner,  every 
large  river  was  impeded  by  revenue  exactions.  In  Ger- 
many, the  baron  or  rural  prince  descended  from  his  moun- 
tain castle  and  levied  what  taxes  he  chose  on  the  passing 
merchant.  The  value  of  an  estate  in  Germany  in  the 
Middle  Ages  was  publicly  measured  by  its  nearness  to  any 
point  where  various  roads  met,  and  thus  the  opportunities 
for  vexatious  tariffs  and  plunderings  were  the  greatest. 

In  France,  as  we  have  seen,  the  old  savage  feeling  towards 
the  stranger,  which  lingers  in  legislation  still,  showed  itself 
during  hundreds  of  years,  in  the  odious  droit  d'aubaine.  It 
was  only  in  the  close  of  the  last  century,  as  we  stated  before, 
that  this  right  was  abolished,  and  it  is  only  in  this  century 
that  the  last  disabilities  of  the  stranger  have  been  removec 
in  French  legislation.  This  relic  of  the  Middle  Ages  still 
exists  under  the  Common  Law  of  England,  and  under  the 
statutes  of  many  American  States,  which  impose  disabilities 
on  the  right  of  aliens  to  hold  real  estate. 

The  savage  "wrecker's  right"  or  droit  de  naufrage,  is  a 
similar  remain  of  the  old  savagery  which  prevailed,  as  we 
have  shown,  throughout  Europe  for  many  centuries.  The 
unfortunate  crew  and  passengers  of  wrecked  vessels  could 
be  imprisoned  and  enslaved,  and  their  property  reverted  to 
the  lord  of  the  coast  or  to  the  crown.  It  is  only  in  modern 
times  that  this  barbarism  has  been  completely  done  away 
with. 

Free  Trade. — Christianity,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  say 
as  to  fiscal  systems  and  financial  or  economical  theories. 
It  only  increases  human  sympathy  and  struggles  against 
human  selfishness.  But  the  great  ideas  which  have  been  at 
the  basis  of  modern  political  economy — the  principles  that 
the  interests  of  all  nations  are  really  one  ;  that  the  losses 
of  one  are  the  losses  of  all,  and  the  gains  of  one  become 
finally  the  gains  of  the  whole ;  that  selfish  obstructions  to 


422  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

trade  and  intercourse  re-act  at  last  against  the  power  which 
places  them,  so  that  the  most  liberal  will  end  by  being  the 
most  prosperous — these  conceptions  have  received  their 
greatest  impulse  from  the  teachings  of  Religion.  One  of  the 
earliest  statements  of  the  effect  of  the  Christian  belief  on 
freedom  of  trade  is  put  forth  in  1553,  by  Edward  VI.  king 
of  England,  in  a  letter  ^  carried  by  two  navigators.  Sir 
Hugh  Willoughby  and  Richard  Chancellor,  starting  on  a 
voyage  to  discover  Cathaye. 

The  letter  sets  forth  the  disposition  to  cultivate  the  love 
and  friendship  of  his  kind,  implanted  in  man  by  the 
Almighty,  and  the  consequent  duty  to  maintain  and  aug- 
ment this  desire,  and  "  to  show  good  affection  to  those  who 
come  from  farre  countries."     .     .     . 

"  And  if  it  be  right  and  equity  to  show  such  humanitie  to  all  men, 
doubtlesse  the  same  might  chiefly  to  be  showed  to  merchants,  who, 
wandering  about  the  world,  search  both  the  land  and  the  sea,  to  carry 
such  good  and  profitable  things  as  are  found  in  their  countries  to 
remote  regions  and  kingdoms,  and  again  to  bring  from  the  same  such 
things  as  they  find  there  commodious  for  their  own  countries  .  .  . 
for  the  God  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  greatly  providing  for  mankind, 
would  not  that  things  should  be  found  in  one  region,  to  the  end  that 
all  should  have  need  of  another,  that  by  this  means,  friendship  might 
be  established  among  all  men,  and  every  one  seeke  to  gratifye  all." 

As  liberal  ideas  have,  century  after  century,  more  and 
more  taken  possession  of  men's  minds,  there  has  been  an 
increasing  readiness  for  unrestrained  intercourse  and  un- 
shackled trade.  The  prosperity  of  large  countries  with 
varied  productions — like  the  United  States  or  Germany — 
where  perfect  internal  free  trade  prevails  through  all 
interests  and  communities,  suggests  the  feasibility  of  larger 
unions  of  different  countries  and  races,  and  foretokens  the 
more  complete  and  grander  union  of  all  nations  in  the  dis- 
tant future,  when  the  productions  of  one  shall  be  open  to  all, 
'  Quoted  by  Ward,  Laws  of  Natio)is,  vol.  ii.,  p.  332. 


PROGRESS  IN  ECONOMICAL  IDEAS.  423 

and  all  men  shall  buy  and  sell  wherever  it  seemeth  them 
good,  without  obstruction  of  tax  or  tariff — a  day  in  which 
wealth  shall  be  more  evenly  distributed  among  all  human 
beings,  than  thus  far  history  has  known. 

In  this  matter,  fortunately,  the  selfish  impulse  which  is 
struggled  against  by  Christianity,  is  f  and  on  the  broad 
scale  and  in  a  long  period  to  be  the  injurious  one.  It  will 
become  more  and  more  evident  that  for  countries  like 
Southern  Germany  to  tax  the  manufacturers  of  North 
Germany  is  only  a  little  less  unprofitable  than  taxing  the 
manufacturers  of  Belgium ;  and  for  Illinois  to  obstruct 
the  entrance  of  the  products  of  Massachusetts  is  a  pro- 
ceeding of  the  same  kind  as  shutting  out  the  manufactures 
of  England.  So  extended  and  complicated  are  the  con- 
nections of  nations,  that  the  true  effects  of  selfishness  are 
finally  made  more  apparent  than  they  are  in  narrow  and 
personal  relations.  As  civilization  advances  the  Free 
Trade  Powers  will  be  more  prosperous,  and  will  confirm, 
by  their  success,  the  worth  of  the  principle  of  humanity  as 
a  prudential  maxim.  The  interests  of  one  will  be  seen  to 
be  the  interests  of  all. 

Some  of  the  old  economical  ideas  of  the  past  have  been 
already  removed  by  the  progress  of  right  reason  and 
sentiments  of  justice,  and  fruitful  causes  of  dissensions 
and  wars  taken  away.  Thus  the  exclusive  possession 
by  a  nation  of  gold  mines,  or  a  rich  colony,  is  no  longer 
considered  a  loss  to  other  nations  ;  and  the  flow  of  the 
precious  metals  to  the  markets  of  one  power  is  no  longer 
regarded  as  necessarily  an  injury  to  the  exporting  power. 
A  great  calamity  of  one  people  is  now  known  not  to  be 
a  blessing  to  any  other. 

The  tendency  of  the  new  ideas  in  political  economy  is 
clearly  towards  a  greater  unity  of  all  states  and  nations. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Christian  influence,  as  in  regard 


424  CESTA    CHRISTI. 

to  war,  will  be  towards  a  compromise  between  the  ideal 
of  Christianity  and  the  necessities  of  the  times — a  com- 
promise ever  approaching  unchecked  intercourse  and  un- 
limited trade,  looking  towards  the  time  when  all  human 
beings  shall  be  acknowledged  to  be  of  one  blood  and  one 
family. 

Another  expression  of  the  new  humanity  may  be  found 
in  the  charitable  aid  and  sympathy,  extended  by  one 
country  to  another  in  cases  of  public  calamity.  This 
century  has  been  peculiarly  rich  in  such  expressions  of  a 
common  compassion.  They  are  the  legitimate  fruits  of 
the  Faith  from  Judaea.  The  aid  given  by  the  United 
States  to  the  sufferers  from  the  Irish  famine,  to  the  victims 
of  floods  in  France  and  Hungary,  to  the  wounded  in 
France  and  Germany  in  the  Franco-German  War,  to  the 
struggle  for  Hungarian  Independence,  and  similar  gifts  by 
the  British  people  to  sufferers  from  fire  and  accident  and 
pestilence  in  America,  and  all  other  countries,  as  well  as 
to  those  striving  for  liberty,  are  familiar  instances  of  the 
new  expressions  of  sympathy  which  now  binds  all  nations 
together. 

No  such  expressions  of  common  feeling  among  inde- 
pendent nations  were  known  to  the  classic  world,  or  are 
witnessed  now  outside  of  professed  Christianity. 

With  this  advance  in  international  sympathy  may  be 
considered  the  higher  principles  which  govern  the  relations 
of  civilized  with  inferior  races.  The  old  notion  for  which 
the  Church  is  so  much  responsible,  that  a  Christian  nation 
discovering  a  barbarous  land  has  absolute  power  over  the 
property  and  persons  of  the  pagan  barbarians,  has  nearly 
passed  away.  The  effort  of  every  great  nation,  or  at 
least  the   ideal  of  their  conduct,   towards  barbarous   and 


INFERIOR  RACES.  425 

Inferior  races  is  to  elevate  and  civilize  them.  We  say 
this,  acknowledging  how  wofully  inconsistent  the  conduct 
of  individuals  and  nations  has  often  been  towards  weaker 
or  more  savage  peoples.  The  dealings  of  the  Americans 
with  the  Indians,  the  wars  of  the  English  with  the  Chinese, 
Afghans,  Zulus,  and  others  seem  to  show  no  advance  in 
the  Christian  sentiment  of  compassion  towards  the  weak 
or  justice  to  the  inferior.  Yet  all  who  are  familiar  with 
the  United  States  know  that  the  most  persistent  and 
honest  efforts  are  made  now  to  civilize  and  improve 
these  tribes  ;  and  though  individuals  entirely  forget  their 
compassion  and  religion  in  dealing  with  these  unfortunate 
savages,  yet  the  best  classes  and  the  government  are 
honestly  trying  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  past,  and  to 
do  the  best  for  this  decaying  people. 

The  British  people  also  in  the  past  few  years  have 
so  far  governed  the  instincts  of  pugnacity  and  pride,  as 
to  abandon  an  unjust  campaign  against  an  inferior  race 
(the  Zulus),  even  after  a  defeat  ;  and  to  retreat  from  the 
country  of  another  weaker  people  (the  Afghans),  which 
they  had  conquered,  merely  because  the  Christianized  con- 
science of  the  nation  regarded  the  war  as  useless  or  unjust. 
These  are  surely  considerable  victories  for  the  Christian 
principle,  and  could  not  have  happened  even  a  century 
ago. 

Then  the  efforts  of  the  English  to  civilize  such  tribes 
as  the  Fijis,^  are  a  new  feature  in  history. 

Such  public  measures  as  the  attempts  to  force  opium  on 
China,  and  some  features  in  the  administration  of  India, 
are,  we  admit,  miserable  exceptions  to  this  influence  of 
the  Christian  faith  on  the  relations  of  nations  with  inferior 
powers.  But,  on  the  whole,  it  must  be  admitted  that  there 
has  been  great  progress  in  this  matter ;  and  that  the 
*  See  Miss  Cumming's  book  on  the  Fijis. 


426  GESTA    CHRISTL 

tendency  Is  more  and  more  for  the  powerful  races  to  be 
guided  in  their  deaHngs  with  inferior  by  humane  and 
Christian  principles.  We  are  far  enough  in  this  from  the 
Christian  ideal,  but  we  are  approaching  it. 

As  particular  evidence  of  this  new  spirit  of  compassion 
we  may  also  mention  the  treatment  by  the  American 
government  of  those  whom  they  considered  "  rebels,"  at 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War  in  1865. 

The  struggle  had  been  one  of  extraordinary  intensity 
and  bitterness.  A  million  of  lives  are  believed  to  have 
been  sacrificed  on  both  sides.  The  President  of  the  Union 
had  been  assassinated.  According  to  the  precedents  of 
history,  the  victorious  party  and  the  central  government 
would  have  been  justified  in  executing  the  leaders  of  the 
rebellion  and  confiscating  their  property.  Many  persons 
advised  this  course.  But  the  American  people,  in  some 
directions,  are  singularly  imbued  with  the  compassion  of 
the  Christian  teachings.  The  voice  of  religion  and  sound 
wisdom  prevailed  over  the  cries  of  revenge  and  passion  ; 
and  not  a  life  was  taken  or  a  dollar  confiscated  by  judicial 
process  after  the  close  of  the  war,  for  complicity  in  the 
rebellion.  On  the  contrary,  in  a  iew  years  the  "  rebels  " 
were  restored  to  equal  rights  with  all  other  citizens  of  the 
Union. 

The  very  large  sums  spent  and  the  devotion  of  thou- 
sands of  lives  by  nearly  all  Christian  countries  to  the 
work  of  teaching  and  improving  distant  and  often  .savage 
peoples,  is  also  an  expression  of  the  higher  humanity 
and  brotherhood,  now  a  fixed  part  of  the  moral  habits  of 
leading  nations.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  Greek  or 
Roman  society  even  thinking  of  such  an  object.  The 
only  thing  parallel  to  it,  is  the  efforts  of  the  Buddhist 
priests  to  proselytize  distant  tribes. 

Popular  Education. — The  great  movements  for  populaf 


POPULAR  EDUCATION.  427 

education  are  stimulated  by  the  same  principles  of  human- 
ity. The  child  of  the  poorest  is  equal  to  the  richest  in 
the  new  fraternity,  and  should  have  the  same  essential 
opportunities.  In  all  countries  even  faintly  touched  by 
the  Christian  spirit  of  equality  and  brotherhood,  there  are 
widespread  efforts  to  educate  the  masses. 

Schools  are  open  to  all.  The  rich  are  forced  to  give 
of  their  abundance  for  the  education  of  the  poor.  Not 
only  are  common  schools  open  to  every  class,  but  higher 
schools  and  colleges  of  learning  are  provided  for  the  masses. 
Even  laws  are  passed  compelling  attendance :  and  pro- 
visions are  made  by  individual  charity  for  those  who  are 
poor  and  ill-clad. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  fruits  of  this  Re- 
ligion in  modern  times.  It  is  a  forcible  distribution  of 
wealth  to  confer  the  highest  possible  blessings  on  the 
needy.  It  is  a  confession  by  society  that  the  most 
ignorant,  degraded  and  destitute  person  is  a  brother  of 
the  most  fortunate,  and  must  have  every  fair  opportunity 
to  exert  his  powers. 

If  one  could  imagine  the  proposition  made  to  the  archai 
of  Athens  to  tax  the  rich  in  order  that  the  helots  might 
learn  to  read  the  Greek  classics  ;  or  a  measure  before  the 
Roman  senate  to  set  apart  a  new  revenue  for  providing 
teachers  for  the  plebs  and  the  slaves,  one  can  rightly 
measure  the  progress  of  the  Christian  sentiment  of  equality 
in  these  eighteen  centuries. 

And  as  one  of  the  marked  fruits  of  Christianity,  a  seed 
of  good  almost  unknown  to  the  classic  times — we  may 
mention  the  societies  of  lovers  of  men  and  of  God,  which 
exist  now  in  all  civilized  countries.  These  associations 
may  often  be  bigoted  or  worldly,  still  on  the  whole  they 
attempt  to  teach  men  to  love  one  another,  to  be  just  and 
temperate  and  pure  and   unselfish.     No  moralist  can  re- 


428  GESTA    CHRTSTI. 

gafd  them  with  indifference.  They  must  exert  a  profound 
influence  on  the  whole  morality  of  the  modem  world, 
and  nothing  of  a  popular  nature  like  them  was  known 
before  the  Christian  era — though  there  did  exist  under 
the  Roman  empire,  certain  "  clubs "  of  a  private  char- 
acter, which  were  partly  benevolent  in  their  offices,  and 
perhaps  formed  a  basis   for  the  later  Christian  Churches.^ 

As  a  more  intangible  result,  but  not  less  real,  of  this  great 
moral  power  in  the  world,  we  should  not  omit  the  new 
Hope  given  to  mankind.  When  one  considers  how  vast 
a  proportion  of  the  human  race  are  exposed  to  inevitable 
sorrows  and  disappointments,  how  many  are  crushed  by 
poverty  and  oppression,  what  multitudes  never  rise  to 
any  condition  of  prosperity,  and  how  all  must  go  through 
pain,  sickness  and  the  shadow  of  death,  it  will  be  under- 
stood what  an  immense  happiness  such  a  faith  as  the 
Christian  has  spread  among  the  poor,  the  oppressed,  the 
sorrowful  and  unfortunate,  and  all  the  weary  and  heavy 
laden,  for  eighteen  centuries. 

It  has  made  the  world  a  much  brighter  place  to  mul- 
titudes of  people,  has  wiped  away  tears  without  number, 
has  consoled  the  lot  of  countless  slaves  and  captives,  has 
upheld  unnumbered  widows,  orphans  and  grief-laden,  and 
has  thrown  a  light  and  hope  over  millions  of  death-beds. 
These  results  may  be  alleged  by  the  objector  to  be 
imaginary,  yet  they  are  none  the  less  real.  In  counting 
the  fruits  of  this  Faith,  we  may  fairly  reckon  the  happi- 
ness scattered  in  the  modern  world  as  compared  with  the 
ancient. 

Among   the   somewhat  intangible  fruit,  should  not  be 

forgotten  the  greater  number  of    lives  in   modern  times 

inspired   and   more   or  less  pervaded   by  moral  ideas  and 

purposes,   by    purity    and    truth    and    universal  good-will 

'  See  Boissier,  De  Rossi,  and  Le  Blant,  previously  cited. 


LIBERAL   GOVERNMENT.  429 

The  fevi  in  all  ages  have  felt  moral  impulses,  but  how 
many  tiiousands  exist  now  in  every  small  community 
whose  lives  are  conscientiously  guided  by  these  ideals  and 
who  often  try  to  live  up  to  them.  This  is  a  result  which 
cannot  always  be  measured  in  figures,  but  it  none  the  less 
continually  works  upon  the  customs,  laws  and  institutions 
of  modern  society,  and  has  been  the  source  of  all  the  best 
reforms. 

All  these  are  pre-eminently  the  Gesta  Christi :  for  such 
lives  are  inspired  by  and  modelled  after  Christ. 

Liberal  Government. — Christianity  in  itself  teaches 
nothing  in  regard  to  any  particular  form  of  government. 
Christ  appears  to  have  inculcated  submission  to  the  then 
existing  government  of  Rome — one  of  the  most  despotic 
of  tyrannies.  He  probably  saw  that  the  best  reform  of  po- 
litical institutions  lay  in  the  reform  of  individual  character. 
He  scattered  seed  which  eventually  must  ripen  in  a  har- 
vest of  equal  rights  to  all.  Where  men  should  do  to  one 
another  as  they  would  have  others  do  to  them  ;  where  the 
poorest  and  lowest  was  regarded  as  the  child  of  God  and 
friend  of  Christ,  for  whom  He  lived  and  to  save  whom  He 
died,  there  after  the  course  of  ages  could  be  no  tyranny 
or  political  injustice,  or  inequality  of  rights,  or  legal  op- 
pression. All  persons  and  classes  would  eventually,  as  a 
matter  of  equal  right,  have  a  share  in  the  government. 
Such  principles  lead  ultimately,  as  to  a  logical  conclusion, 
to  each  individual  man  or  woman  having  a  part,  though 
perhaps  not  an  equal  part,  in  making  the  laws,  choosing 
the  rulers,  and  otherwise  administering  the  affairs  which 
relate  to  the  welfare  of  all.  What  the  form  is  by  which 
this  should  be  effected  is  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
Christian  teachings.  These  merely  demand  equal  rights, 
equal  protection  and  an  equal  use  of  their  faculties  for  all. 
But  under  their  influence,  the  tendency  of  the  world  is 


430  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

plainly  towards  bestowing  political  rights  on  the  masses  ; 
towards  parliamentary  and  democratic  institutions.  The 
races  or  peoples,  which  profess  to  be  governed  most 
directly  by  the  words  of  Christ,  the  Anglo-Saxons,  Anglo- 
Americans,  and  Northern  Germans,  are  those  most  inclined 
to  free  institutions.  The  freedom  they  have  gained  in 
religion,  and  the  habit  of  listening  to  the  reported  words 
of  Christ  rather  than  to  ecclesiastical  teachers,  have  led 
them  towards  freedom  in  government,  and  a  respect  for 
the  rights  of  all. 

We  do  not  mention  these  peoples  as  necessarily  em- 
bodying or  following  all  Christ's  principles  more  than  the 
Romanic  or  Keltic  races,  but  as  applying  them  especially 
to  political  rights. 

A  sceptical  writer,  distinguished  for  his  eloquence  and 
learning — Renan — has  said  that  *'  the  Gospels  are  the 
Democratic  'Book  par  excellence."^ 

Great  respect  for  the  individual,  equal  justice  to  all, 
and  a  deep  sense  of  humanity  and  equity — these  are  the 
natural  fruits  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  these  lead  to 
democracy.  Undoubtedly,  modern  liberal  institutions  are 
an  indirect  effect  of  the  religion  first  taught  in  Galilee. 
They  seem  nowhere  to  have  flourished  outside  of  Chris- 
tianity, though  the  sense  of  humanity  and  love  of  liberty 
belong  to  the  whole  race.  No  moral  instincts  and  no 
other  religion  have  ever  given  such  a  stimulus  to  liberty 
and  such  a  sanction  to  justice  for  all.  But  it  need  not  be 
said  that  this  Faith  is  equally  opposed  to  tyranny  by  the 
people  as  to  tyranny  by  the  king ;  and  objects  to  license, 
disorder  and  aimless  revolution,  as  it  does  to  despotism. 

Its  influences,  have,  as  it  were,  only  begun,  in  the  political 
field.  Under  it,  women  are  without  doubt  destined  to  take 
continually  more  part  in  the  government  of  all  civilized 
'  L,e  Livre  Democratique  par  excellence.     {M.  Aur.,  p.  634.) 


PESTILENCES.  431 

countries,  and  the  working  classes  will  be  more  and  more 
relieved  of  inequalities  pressing  upon  them. 

We  cannot  at  present  foresee  all  the  consequences  to 
result  from  these  changes,  certain  to  come.  They  will  no 
doubt  produce  reactions  and  many  difficulties.  But  they 
are  in  the  line  of  human  progress  under  the  stimulus  of 
this  religion  ;  and  their  final  result  we  cannot  question. 

Diminution  of  Pestilences. — The  reduced  mortality  from 
pestilence  in  modern  times,  and  certain  moral  facts  con- 
nected with  these  ravages,  at  first  struck  the  mind  of  the 
writer  as  evidences  of  a  sanitary  progress  in  human  history 
due  to  the  influences  of  a  pure  religion. 

The  fearful  ravages  of  various  diseases  throughout  the 
world,  both  in  the  classic  period  and  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
are  hardly  credible  to  modern  ears.  Taking  a  single 
century  and  one  disease  (the  so  called  "  Black  Death  "), 
we  find  from  Hecker,  that  during  the  fourteenth  century 
it  raged  from  China  to  Iceland  and  Greenland,  almost 
depopulating  vast  countries,  the  highways  being  covered 
with  corpses  in  Syria  and  Armenia ;  the  ships  on  the 
Mediterranean  floating  without  sailors  and  steersmen  ;  in 
Europe  two  queens,  and  many  bishops  and  distinguished 
persons  perishing ;  in  Germany  alone,  a  million  and  a 
quarter,  or  more  than  half  of  the  population,  dying  ;  and 
in  England,  hardly  one-tenth  of  the  inhabitants  escaping, 
and  50,000  corpses  being  buried  in  London  alone.  The 
total  destruction  was  estimated  in  Europe  and  Asia,  at 
23,840,000.1 

In  every  century,  similar  though  not  so  destructive 
pestilences  are  mentioned.  They  arose  from  the  non- 
Christian  countries  in  almost  all  cases,  and  were  stimulated 
in  every  country  by  intemperate  and  immoral  habits. 
'  Hecker,  p.  85. 


43*  GESTA   CHRISTl. 

They  found  their  appropriate  nidi,  in  which  to  ripen  their 
seeds,  in  those  wicked  and  heathenish  centres  of  nominally 
Christian  cities,  which  form  in  all  ages  exceptions  to  the 
rule  and  influence  of  Christianity. 

They  have  gradually  diminished  in  power  in  modern 
times,  though  the  non-Christian  lands  still  form  their  source 
and  centre.  The  most  moral  and  religious  populations  are 
in  all  Christian  countries  the  most  exempt  from  them. 

Still,  the  increasing  control  over  these  ravaging  pestil- 
ences, the  diminution  of  the  mortality  from  them,  the 
narrower  sweep  of  their  power  in  Christian  countries, 
seem  to  be  due  more  to  the  advance  of  science  and  civiliza- 
tion, than  to  the  direct  influence  of  Christianity.  The 
increased  skill  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  the  more  careful 
5ystem  of  separation  and  exclusion  of  infected  cases,  the 
cleaner  and  more  wholesome  habits  of  modern  life,  the 
greater  comfort  enjoyed  and  the  more  wide-spread  morality 
and  self-control  of  the  poorer  classes,  are  undoubtedly 
the  special  causes  of  the  diminution  of  the  fatal  ravages 
of  pestilence  in  modern,  as  compared  with  ancient,  times. 
The  last  cause,  however,  is  one  indirectly  due  to  Chris- 
tianity ;  so  that  we  can  at  least  say  that  a  pure  religion  is 
one  of  many  causes  of  the  comparative  freedom  of  the 
modern  Christian  peoples  from  very  deadly  plagues  ;  and 
in  like  manner  of  the  lower  death-rate  and  longer 
average  of  life,  peculiar  to  the  experience  of  modern 
civilized  races. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

INTEMPERANCE. 

At  first  thought  it  will  seem  remarkable  that  the  vice  of 
intemperance  under  alcoholic  stimulus  has  grown  with 
civilization.  The  modern  European  and  American  leading 
peoples  are  certainly  more  under  this  terrible  curse  than 
were  the  oldest  races  known  to  us,  the  Egyptians,  Hindoos, 
Persians,  Assyrians,  and  Jews,  or  the  Classic  nations.  The 
reasons  are  to  be  found  partly  in  the  fact  that  nearly  all 
ancient  civilization,  and  almost  all  these  great  peoples, 
found  their  central  seats  in  mild  or  warm  climates.  In- 
temperance is  a  vice  especially  of  northern  races,  and  under 
cold  climates.  Then  as  arts  and  sciences  have  advanced, 
new  stimulants  have  continually  been  discovered  or  in- 
vented ;  and  above  all,  the  complex  work  of  modern 
society  demands  a  greater  variety  of  nerve  stimulus,  and 
the  wear  of  the  brain  naturally  seeks  some  real  or  supposed 
counter-agency  in  narcotics  and  alcoholic  stimuli.  The 
human  family  seems  utterly  unable  to  do  without  some 
of  these  stimulants,  whether  contained  in  tea,  coffee, 
tobacco,  alcohol,  opium,  or  the  manifold  substitutes  known 
to  barbarous  tribes. 

The  leaders  of  modern  civilization  have  been  the  northern 
races,  and  climate  and  transmitted  habits  have  made  them 
peculiarly  sensitive  to  all  these  various  forms  of  stimulant. 
Under   those    influences,  and  the  demands  for  excessive 

433  f   F 


434  GESTA    CHRISTl. 

brain-work  peculiar  to  modern  conditions,  or  the  exhaus- 
tion from  muscular  labour  in  confined  air,  the  temptation 
to  the  over-use  of  these  stimuli  for  all  classes  in  modern 
times  has  been  very  powerful.  The  chill  and  dampness 
of  northern  climates,  the  inherited  German  and  Keltic 
habits  of  conviviality,  the  want  of  comparatively  innocent 
alcoholic  stimulants,  the  over-work  of  brain  in  one  class 
and  the  wear  of  muscles  in  crowded  factories  in  another, 
acting  with  ignorance  and  inherited  weakness  of  will,  are 
the  causes  of  the  astounding  intemperance  among  such 
peoples  as  the  Swedes,  Scotch,  English,  and  Northern 
Americans,  compared  with  the  moderation  of  such  nations 
as  the  Hindoos,  Jews,  and  Romans.  No  language  can 
exaggerate  the  evils  of  this  fearful  curse  in  modern  times, 
especially  on  the  labouring  classes  of  the  countries  we  have 
named.  Only  war  surpasses  it  in  the  harvest  of  misery 
and  poverty  and  crime  it  sows  for  the  families  of  the  poor. 
It  desolates  homes,  breaks  the  hearts  of  women,  turns  out 
children  worse  than  orphans  on  a  cold  world  and  thus 
makes  them  criminals,  impoverishes  the  labourer,  sows 
quarrels,  violence,  disturbance,  and  murders,  fills  prisons 
and  almshouses  and  hospitals,  and  is  the  prolific  cause  of 
idiocy,  insanity,  disease,  and  moral  and  physical  degenera- 
tion. It  would  be  safe  to  say  that  in  all  northern  countries, 
more  than  half  of  all  the  oft"ences  against  person  and 
property,  are  caused  directly  or  indirectly  by  excessive  use 
of  alcoholic  drinks.  The  amount  spent  by  the  labouring 
classes  on  them  would  alone  prevent  pauperism  in  all 
Christian  countries.  Thus  Dr.  Lees  estimates  that  the 
English  working  classes  spend  every  year  the  enormous 
sum  of  ;^3 5 0,000,000  for  liquors  alone.  In  i860,  the  value 
of  the  distilled  and  fermented  liquors  in  the  United  States 
was  estimated  at  $740,000,000.  In  1869-70,  one  person 
in  every  thirty  is  said  by  Dr.  Beard,  to  have  been  arrested 


THE  CURSES   OF  INTEMPERANCE.  435 

foi  drunkenness  in  Liverpool,  and  one  in  thirty-eight  in 
Manchester.  The  number  arrested  every  year  in  New 
York  alone  for  offences  caused  by  drunkenness,  is  some 
4S,ooo. 

It  was  reported  by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statis- 
tics of  Labour  in  1879  and  1880,  after  careful  investigation, 
that  eighty-four  per  cent,  of  all  the  crimes  of  the  State 
which  came  before  the  courts,  came  directly  or  indirectly 
from  the  abuse  of  alcoholic  stimulants.  The  Prison  Com- 
miissioners  of  the  same  State  report  that  for  the  year  1880, 
ninety  out  of  every  hundred  persons  committed  to  the 
prisons,  were  intemperate ;  and  that  the  cost  of  protecting 
the  State  from  this  army  of  criminals  during  the  year  was 
$1,971,198. 

It  is  estimated  by  a  careful  investigator  (Judge  Aldrich), 
that  the  American  people  spend  annually  some  $600,000,000 
on  intoxicating  drinks. 

There  needs  no  amplification  of  figures  showing  the 
fearful  curses  coming  from  Intemperance. 

Does  Christianity  work  against  it }  Has  it  made  pro- 
gress in  that  direction  in  the  past,  and  is  it  likely  to  make 
more  in  the  future  ? 

There  can  be  little  doubt  to  any  familiar  with  social 
customs  in  civilized  countries,  that  among  all  classes  there 
has  been  a  great  change  in  the  direction  of  Temperance 
during  the  past  hundred  years. 

This  is  largely  due  to  the  grand  ascetic  movement  in 
favour  of  entire  abstinence  from  alcoholic  drinks,  which, 
beginning  in  the  United  States  under  the  influence  of 
religion,  has  spread  over  Sweden,  Great  Britain,  and 
America,  and  influenced  thousands  who  have  never  taken 
the  vow  of  abstinence.  Movements  in  the  United  States 
against  the  extreme  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  began  very 
early. 


436  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

Thus  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay  records,  as  far  back  as 
1646,  we  find  a  law,  that,  "forasmuch  as  drunkenness  is  a 
vice  to  be  abhorred  of  all  nations,  especially  of  those  who 
hold  and  profess  the  gospel  of  Christ  Jesus,  and  seeing  any 
strict  law  against  the  sin  will  not  prevail,  unless  the  cause 
be  taken  away,"^  it  is  enacted  that  no  wine  under  a. 
quarter-cask  shall  be  sold  except  by  paid  licence,  and 
severe  penalties  are  threatened  to  any  one  selling  drink  at 
cinseasonable  hours,  or  guilty  of  drunkenness. 

In  165 1,  a  law  is  recorded  in  Easthampton,  Long  Island, 
^necking  the  sale  of  ardent  spirits.  Many  similar  laws  are 
found  in  American  colonial  history,  influenced  by  the  fer- 
vent Puritan  spirit.  In  1760  the  various  religious  societies 
^)rotested  against  the  use  of  alcoholic  beverages  at  funerals  ; 
and  the  Friends  early  abolished  the  practice.  In  1/77 
the  first  Congress  at  Philadelphia,  influenced  by  the  re- 
ligious sentiment  of  the  country,  passed  a  resolution  against 
distilling  grain  for  liquors,  and  against  excessive  drinking. 
In  1788  an  act  was  passed  by  the  New  York  Legislature, 
regulating  the  sale  of  liquors,  and  controlling  the  taverns. 
In  1789  the  first  Temperance  Society  is  said  to  have  been 
formed  at  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  by  the  active  members 
of  the  church.  In  1797  the  Quarterly  Methodist  Episcopal 
Conference  of  Virginia  passed  a  series  of  resolves,  pledg- 
ing their  honour  as  Christians,  not  only  to  abandon  entirely 
the  use  of  ardent  spirits  themselves,  except  as  medicine, 
but  also  to  use  their  influence  to  induce  others  to  do  the 
same.  The  Pennsylvania  Synod  even  recommended  their 
pastors  to  preach  against  "  the  sin  of  intemperance."  The 
National  American  Temperance  Society  was  formed  in 
1826  in  Boston.  Still,  with  all  these  efforts,  habits  of  in- 
temperance prevailed  in  this  country  to  an  alarming  extent. 
Even  as  late  as  1836,  a  distinguished  divine  of  Andover  is 
'  Quoted  by  F.  W.  Bird.     Papers  of  Amer.  Soc.  Ass.,  p.  98,  1 88 1. 


TEMPERANCE  IN  AMERICA.  437 

reported  to  have  stated  publicly  that  he  knew  ovci  forty 
ministers  who  were  either  drunkards,  or  addicted  to  habits 
of  hard  drinking.  The  "Temperance"  movement,  however, 
grew  into  the  "Total  Abstinence"  movement  about  1833; 
the  churches  of  the  country  everywhere  struggled  against 
the  ruinous  vice,  and  the  discussion  of  the  subject,  especially 
by  pastors  and  lecturers,  roused  the  conscience  of  the  entire 
nation.  Great  numbers  of  drunkards  were  reclaimed,  and, 
more  important  still,  the  young  were  started  with  a  horror 
of  this  excess,  and  the  convivial  habits  of  society  entirely 
changed.  Whereas  formerly  few  families  of  the  fortunate 
classes  were  to  be  found  without  an  intemperate  member, 
in  latter  years  it  is  an  exception  to  hear  of  such  instances. 
The  ascetic  movement  has  reached  all  classes.  In  no 
country  of  the  world  are  there  so  many  families  of  com- 
fortable circumstances  who  never  have  wine  or  liquors  on 
their  tables,  or  so  many  hard-working  operatives  who  never 
touch  these  stimulants.  What  is  called  the  Total  Absti- 
nence movement,  which  is  a  kind  of  ascetic  off-shoot  of 
Christianity,  has  scattered  untold  blessings  in  this  country, 
and  should  ever  be  remembered  with  profound  gratitude. 
Like  most  ascetic  efforts,  it  is  not  destined  to  be  per- 
manent ;  but  it  was  needed  and  will  be  needed.  There 
are  signs  already  of  its  yielding,  especially  under  foreign 
influence  in  the  United  States,  to  a  Temperance  based  on 
rational  self-control ;  and  the  aid  to  this  will  be  all  the 
civilizing  influences  of  society.  For  the  man  under  the 
fatal  spell  of  this  appetite,  the  only  possibility  of  regaining 
self-control  is  by  entire  abstinence  ;  and  the  best  of  all 
reformatory  influences  is  the  power  of  Christianity.  The 
shock  which  the  dread  of  retribution  threatened  by  this 
belief  gives,  will  awaken  from  vice,  and  then  the  trans- 
forming power  of  Love,  spoken  of  by  Plato,  for  a  "  divine 
Person"  will  fill  the  soul  with  such  an  enthusiasm,  as  to 


438  CESTA    CHRIST/. 

raise  it  above  the  power  of  these  base  appetites,  and  per- 
manently reform  the  nature. 

The  writer  in  these  statements  does  not  speak  of 
theories,  but  of  facts,  which  he  has  often  seen  exempHfied 
in  most  striking  life-histories.  ^  The  best  of  all  safeguards 
against  intemperance  is  the  Christian  Faith. 

The  power  of  Religion  in  checking  this  vice  is  seen  now 
in  tens  of  thousands  of  families  throughout  the  land,  and 
in  the  higher  standard  of  temperance  spread  abroad  among 
the  whole  people. 

Many  of  the  States  have  adopted  prohibitory  laws,  pre- 
venting all  public  sale  of  liquors,  and  others,  strict  license 
laws. 

It  is  true  that  with  all  this  there  is  a  fearful  amount  of 
intemperance  in  the  United  States,  especially  in  the  large 
cities  among  the  foreign  poor  and  their  descendants.  But 
here  Christian  philanthropy  is  discovering  very  ingenious 
means  of  diminishing  its  growth.  A  great  deal  of  intem- 
perance arises  from  idleness,  from  want  of  education,  from 
lack  of  virtuous  amusement  and  proper  sociability,  from 
contact  with  bad  example,  and  from  want  of  hope  and  the 
consciousness  of  social  degradation.  The  religious  bodies 
in  the  cities  have  sought  to  meet  these  wants  by  opening 
coffee  and  club  rooms  for  working  people  ;  by  providing 
virtuous  amusements,  and  above  all  by  opening  "industrial 
schools  "  for  the  children  of  the  poor.  It  is  found  by  long 
practical  experience  that  the  daughters  of  habitual  drunk- 
ards being  brought  under  the  daily  influences  of  order, 
industry  and  purity  in  these  schools,  having  better  food, 
coming  in  contact  with  superior  and  refined  women,  and 
hearing  lessons  of  morality  daily,  hardly  ever  grow  up  in 
the  way  of  their  parents,  but  become  naturally  sober  and 
decent  women.  ^ 

*  See  T/ie  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  Ycrk,  ■  IHd. 


REFORMS  IN  SOCIAL  HABITS.  439 

It  may  fairly  be  said  that  a  considerable  diminution  in 
intemperate  habits  has  been  caused  in  the  United  States 
by  the  influence,  direct  and  indirect,  of  the  religious  prin- 
ciple. Social  habits  are  much  improved,  and  great  numbers 
of  the  poor  have  been  rescued  from  the  control  of  this  vice. 
It  needs  only  the  same  influences,  continued  in  manifold 
forms,  to  eradicate  the  vice  from  thousands  of  families. 
We  have  beheld  the  beginnings  of  this  renovating  power 
in  American  social  life,  and  we  can  logically  argue  to  its 
future  wide  influence  as  time  goes  on.  In  Europe,  also, 
there  has  been,  in  the  countries  most  given  to  intoxication 
and  extreme  habits  of  drinking,  a  very  marked  improvement 
in  the  past  few  years.  The  reform  in  favour  of  abstinence 
in  Sweden  has  been  especially  impelled  by  religious  con- 
siderations and  by  the  religious  teachers.  It  has  already 
accomplished  untold  good  in  that  country.  ^ 

The  various  Temperance  and  Total  Abstinence  move- 
ments in  England  and  Scotland  have  received  their  great 
impulse  from  a  like  source.  They  have  not  only  affected 
great  numbers  of  the  common  people,  but  their  reflex 
power  has  worked  upon  the  middle  and  wealthiest  classes, 
and  produced  or  aided  a  general  reform  in  the  convivial 
habits  of  society.  In  the  higher  English  society  there  is 
not  nearly  the  amount  of  drunkenness  which  prevailed  a 
century  since. 

The  great  diminution  in  the  consumption  of  spirits  by 
the  British  working  classes  for  the  past  few  years,  as 
shown  by  the  revenue  returns,  is  another  evidence  of  m- 
creasing  sobriety. 

We  do  not  doubt  the  mingling  of  many  other  influences 

in  bringing  about  a  greater  sobriety  through  all  classes  in 

the  British  Islands.     In  some  respects  the  progress  of  the 

arts  and  sciences  works   against    a   low   habit  like   this ; 

'  See  Aforse  Folk,  by  the  Author. 


440  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

more  nourishing  food,  purer  water,  higher  amusements,  and 
a  better  social  tone,  all  tend  to  diminish  its  power.  But 
the  direct  and  indirect  influence  of  religion'  is  the  most 
powerful  obstacle  to  the  spread  of  such  a  vice,  and  to  this 
is  largely  due  the  improvement  sometimes  among  persons 
who  themselves  may  be  indifferent  to  the  Christian  Faith. 

It  is  not  claimed  of  course  that  the  Christian  Religion 
has  done  all  that  lay  in  it  towards  removing  intemperance 
from  the  world.  It  has  only  begun  its  workings.  Men 
have  not  received  its  teachings  as  they  will  yet  receive 
them.  But  the  essential  influence  of  this  Faith  is  to  raise^ 
the  man  above  a  low  appetite,  to  strengthen  his  self- 
control,  and  reform  his  whole  nature.  Where  Christianity 
had  full  power,  there  could  be  no  drunkenness.  From  the 
results  accomplished  in  a  few  centuries,  all  can  judge  what 
will  be  the  effects  after  long  periods  of  time. 

'  One  of  the  most  striking  instances  of  the  power  of  this  Faith  over  in- 
temperance is  in  llie  results  accomplished  by  the  Women's  Christian  Tern- 
perance  Union  of  the  United  States  with  its  three  thousand  auxiliary 
societies,  and  its  vast  number  of  devoted  women  working  for  this  end.  See 
its  reports  and  Mrs.  Willard's  writings. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

PERSECUTION. 

The  most  disgraceful  feature  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church  is  its  persecution  of  opposing  or  dif- 
fering beliefs.  There  is  nothing  whatever  in  tlie  words  of 
Christ  or  the  teachings  of  the  Apostles  to  countenance 
this  practice.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  opposed  to  the  very 
essence  of  the  Christian  system  ;  and  John,  in  defining 
God  as  Love,  would  for  ever  put  an  end  to  such  travesties 
of  faith  in  Him  as  would  lead  men  to  hate  and  persecute. 
The  evil  tendency  arose,  however,  very  early  from  the  idea, 
born  of  ignorance  and  bigotry,  that  a  change  of  opinion 
produced  by  force  would  be  for  the  advantage  of  the  new 
Faith,  and  for  the  good  of  the  believer  thus  compelled, 
and  that  men  were  guilty  who  held  incorrect  beliefs. 
These  ideas  were  early  engrafted  in  Roman  law, — an  evil 
feature  which  was  derived  from  the  influence  of  the  Church. 
Justinian's  legislation  against  Arians  and  other  heretics 
bears  a  stamp  of  ecclesiastical  bigotry  scarce  known  to 
Roman  legislation.  The  Emperor  Theodosius  reached 
the  acme  of  bigotry  when  he  threatened  death  as  the 
legal  punishment  of  heretics,  with  the  words  that  "  no 
place  must  be  left  them  where  they  could  do  injury  even 
to  the  elements  themselves  ";  ^  and  where  he  declares  that 
with  apostates  even   penitence   does    not  obliterate   their 

*  Quoniam  his  nihil  relinquendum  loci  est,  in  quo  ipsis  etiam  ele- 
mentis  fiat  injuria  {Cod.  i.-v.  Leg.  3,  etc.). 

44» 


442 


GESTA    CHRISTI. 


crime.^  But  nothing  in  all  history  has  been  so  stupid 
and  useless  and  cruel  as  the  persecution  from  the  earliest 
ages,  by  nominal  Christians,  of  a  gifted  race,  united  to 
them  by  many  ties — the  Jews. 

The  legislation  against  this  unfortunate  race  began  as 
far  back  as  the  time  of  Justinian.  They  were  persecuted 
and  pillaged  incessantl}'  ;  they  were  forced  to  pay  immense 
sums  to  remain  under  the  protection  of  the  common  law, 
and  many  were  farmed  out  to  particular  men  for  purposes 
of  extortion.  The  code  of  the  Visigoths  early  showed  the 
bigoted  influences  of  ecclesiasticism,  and  under  it  the  Jews 
were  forbidden  to  testify  in  courts  of  justice,  and  were 
spoken  of  as  "  beasts "  in  law,  and  their  property  as 
belonging  to  the  noblemen  on  whose  lands  they  chanced 
to  be.  In  Germany  the}'  were  long  considered  the  serfs 
of  the  Emperor  ;  in  England  they  were  frequently  held  in 
common  servitude.  In  France  the  whole  body  at  times 
was  banished,  and  many  were  put  to  death  with  tortures. 
It  was  even  decreed  that  communication  with  Jewish 
women  should  be  punished  as  with  beasts,  and  both  parties 
burned  alive. 

The  persecutions  of  the  Moors  by  the  Christians  of 
Spain ;  of  heretics  and  Protestants  under  the  Inquisi- 
tion ;  of  Protestants  by  Catholics,  and  Catholics  by 
Protestants ;  of  the  Puritans  by  the  Church  of  England, 
and  of  Baptists  and  Quakers  by  Puritans,  are  all  too  well 
known  to  need  relating.  The  history  of  the  Christian 
Church  has  been  a  history  of  opposition  to  her  Master 
in  the  matter  of  hate  and  persecution  of  opposing  beliefs. 
The  vestures  of  the  historical  Church  are  stained  deep 
with  the  blood  of  the  innocent,  shed  for  ideas  which  they 
believed  true.  Individuals  in  every  age,  inspired  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Teacher  of  Love,  have  urged  the  hatefulnes<j 
^  Nee  flagitium  eoriim  oblitcrabitur  poenitentid. 


PROTESTS  AGAINST  PERSECUTION.  443 

of  persecution,  the  tolerance  of  differing  opinions,  and  the 
difference  between  character  and  mere  intellectual  belief 
Though  uttering  only  the  common-places  of  Christian 
teaching,  they  were  derided  or  not  listened  to,  and  the 
religious  world  went  on  violating  the  first  principles  of  the 
Gospel. 

In  each  century  more  and  more  individuals  became 
imbued  with  Christian  truths,  and  believed  and  urged 
that  man  was  responsible  to  God  alone  for  his  religious 
opinions;  that  character  rather  than  belief  was  the  test, 
and  that  any  injury  done  to  a  human  being  for  his  religious 
ideas  or  practices  (so  long  as  they  did  not  conflict  with 
common  morals),  was  a  violation  of  the  principles  of 
Christ's  doctrine,  and  a  wrong  and  injustice.  These  pro- 
tests arose,  too,  from  those  nominally  outside  of  Chris- 
tianity who  had  felt  its  influence  though  denying  the 
name,  and  thus  the  current  of  opinion  moved  gradually 
against  the  practice  of  religious  persecution.  Thus  the 
celebrated  John  Robinson,  father  of  Puritanism  in  New 
England,  says, 

"  It  is  no  property  of  religion  to  compel  to  religion  what  ought  to  be 
taken  up  freely ;  that  no  man  is  forced  by  Christians  against  his  will, 
seeing  that  he  that  wants  faith  and  devotion  is  unserviceable  to  God, 
and  that  God  not  being  contentious,  would  not  be  worshipped  of  the 
unwilhng  .  .  ,  and  lastly,  considering  that  neither  God  is  pleased 
with  unwilhng  worshippers,  nor  Christian  societies  bettered,  nor  the 
persons  themselves." ' 

Grotius  ^  is  equally  in  advance  of  his  times  : 

"  But  they  that  persecute  others  for  no  other  cause  but  because 
they  either  teach  or  profess  the  Christian  religion,  are  most  unreason- 
able.    For  certainly  our  Christian  doctrine  considered  in  its  sincerity 

'  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  40. 

2  Right  of  War  and  Peace,  book  iL  c.  20.  i^Evait's  translation, 
1782). 


444  GEb'TA    CHRISTL 

without  any  commixture,  contains  nothing  prejudicial  to  humane 
society,  nay  that  doth  not  rather  advance  it ;  it  shall  speak  for  itself 
and  its  enemies  shall  confess  no  less." 

In  the  United  States,  where  both  practice  and  legislation 
are  much  under  the  influence  of  Christian  motives,  all 
persecution  for  religious  opinion,  or  withdrawing  of  civil 
rights  on  account  of  belief,  or  interference  in  any  way 
with  religious  worship  or  practices  (where  not  conflicting 
with  common  morals),  has  passed  entirely  out,  not  only  of 
use,  but  even  from  the  thought  of  men. 

Persecution  is  passing  away  also  in  Europe,  though  sur- 
viving here  and  there  in  disabilities  of  Jews  (as  in  regard 
to  the  marriage  of  Christians  and  Jews  in  Hungary),  or 
violence  against  Jews  (as  in  Russia),  or  legislation  against 
Catholics  (as  in  Germany),  or  proceedings  against  heretics 
or  schismatics. 

The  day  is  not  far  distant  in  which  the  charity  of  Christ 
will  be  embodied  in  all  the  legislation,  practice,  and 
opinion  of  the  civilized  nations,  and  all  men  shall  be 
free  to  think,  worship,  and  practice  (within  reasonable 
restraints)  as  to  them  may  seem  good.  Then  at  length 
will  the  Church  of  Christ  be  like  its  Head. 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

HUMANE   PROGRESS   AMONG   NON-CHRISTIAN    PEOPLES.* 

It  is  a  grand  and  consoling  thought,  harmonious  with 
reason  and  the  utterances  of  inspired  men,  tl>at  there  is 
in  human  history  a  "continuity"  of  Divine  revelations. 
That  is,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  not  merely  manifested 
itself  to  one  race  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  world  during 
a  few  years,  but  that  He  has  been  struggling  with  human 
souls  during  all  ages  and  among  all  races.  Certain  indi- 
viduals have  especially  received  these  inspirations,  and 
have  so  grasped  certain  moral  and  spiritual  truths,  or  have 
led  such  pure  and  unselfish  lives,  as  to  profoundly  affect 
the  humane  and  moral  progress  of  whole  races  of  men. 
Indeed  the  continuance  and  relative  advance  of  great 
nations  have  often  depended  on  the  degree  to  which  they 
followed  the  instructions  and  truths  taught  by  their  great 
religious  leaders.  Under  this  aspect,  GOD  is  an  ever- 
acting  force  in  human  history,  and  men  and  women  in  the 
most  widely  scattered  countries  and  among  races  given  up 
to  superstition  or  degrading  practices,  have  opened  their 
souls  to  this  Divine  light.  The  light  which  they  in  turn 
have  given  to  the  world,  has  not  been  indeed  like  the  pure 
radiance  shining  forth  from  the  "  Son  of  Man"  in  Judaea, 

^  We  object  strongly  to  the  invidious  implication  of  the  term 
"  Heathen  "  peoples,  as  though  such  races  were  all  wild  tribes,  given 
up  to  idolatrous  and  barbarous  practices.  Some  of  the  heathen 
peoples  have  grasped  a  great  deal  of  Divine  truth. 

445 


446  GESTA    CHRJSTI. 

but  it  has  contained  rays  of  the  heavenly  Hght,  and,  though 
obscured  by  mists  of  superstition  and  the  clouds  of  human 
ignorance,  it  has  yet  guided  many  a  weary  soul  in  the 
dark  ways  of  the  world. 

Paul  evidently  had  these  truths  in  mind,  when  he  de- 
clares that  "  the  invisible  things  of  HiM  from  the  creation 
of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  perceived  through  the 
things  that  are  made,  even  His  everlasting  power  and 
Divinity"  (Rom.  i.  20);  and  again,  "For  when  Gentiles 
which  have  no  law,  do  by  nature  the  things  of  the  law, 
these,  having  no  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves,  in  that 
they  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts,  their 
conscience  bearing  witness  therewith,  and  their  thoughts 
one  with  another  accusing  or  else  excusing  them  "  (Rom. 
xii.  14,  15)  ;  or,  when  on  Mars'  Hill,  he  said  to  the  ap- 
parently superstitious  worshippers  of  an  "  unknown  God," 
"  Whom  ye  ignorantly  worship,  Him  declare  I  unto  you  " 
(Acts  xvii.  1-23).  Peter  too  expressed  a  like  thought  in 
the  words  "  Of  a  truth,  I  perceive  that  God  is  no  respecter 
of  persons  :  but  in  every  nation,  he  that  feareth  Him  and 
worketh    righteousness    is    acceptable   to   Him  "   (Acts  x. 

34,  35)- 

In  comparing  humane  progress  under  peoples  nominally 

Christian   and  those  non-Christian,   it  is  but  just  to  take 

among  the  latter,  nations  who  have  reached  a  high  state  oi 

organization  and  the  most  complete  civilization  which  we 

find  outside  of  Christianity.     In  this  view  we  shall  choose 

the  Hindoos,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Arabs.     Our  comparison, 

under  the  limits  of  this  work,  must  of  necessity  be  very 

brief,  and  only  touch  on  points  familiar  to  students. 

The  Hindoos  are  admitted  by  historians  to  have  attained 

to  a  very  high  intellectual  and  moral  advancement.     The 

ancient    books    of  their    faith    contain    scattered    through 

them  moral  and  spiritual  truths  which  in  power  and  depth 


GREAT  TRUTHS  AMONG    THE  HINDOOS.        447 

equal  many  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  Their  sages 
and  poets  frequently  saw  the,  truths  of  the  Unity  and 
Spirituality  of  God,  of  a  superintending  Prov^idence,  of 
man's  sin  and  his  want  of  forgiveness,  of  the  need  of  an 
"  Angel  Messiah  "  or  Incarnation  of  Divinity,  of  immor- 
tality, of  judgment  to  come,  of  human  brotherhood  and 
equality  before  God,  and  all  the  duties  to  God  and  man 
that  spring  from  these  doctrines. 

But  with  all  these  truths,  were  included  soon  so  many 
falsehoods,  so  many  superstitions,  vagaries,  bloody,  cruel 
and  licentious  ideas  and  practices,  and  the  want  of  any 
one  simple  and  pure  life  and  doctrine  like  those  of  Jesus, 
that  the  people  very  early  fell  into  debasing  practices 
which  checked  progress.  Mr.  Mill,  in  his  History  of  India, 
justly  says, 

"  If  those  qualities  which  render  a  man  amiable,  respectable  and 
useful  as  a  human  being;  if  wisdom,  beneficence  and  self-command 
are  celebrated  as  the  chief  recommendations  to  the  favour  of  the 
Almighty;  if  the  production  of  happiness  is  steadily  and  constantly 
represented  as  the  most  acceptable  worship  to  the  Creator,  no  other 
proof  is  requisite  that  they  who  framed  and  they  who  understood  this 
religion,  have  arrived  at  high  and  refined  notions  of  an  All-Perfect 
Being"  (vol.  i.  p.  263). 

The  corruptions  of  the  early  Brahmanic  faith  show  that 
such  an  idea  of  Deity  had  long  passed  away  among  the 
masses  in  India.  The  deification  of  licentiousness  and 
cruelty  in  the  Hindoo  faith  has  degraded  the  people,  and 
no  doubt  tended  to  produce  the  singular  indifference  to 
human  suffering,  noticed  by  travellers,^  and  the  licentious- 

•  We  have  again  and  again  witnessed  along  the  great  pilgrim-routes 
of  India,  harrowing  illustrations  of  this  sad  truth  ;  we  have  seen  poor 
creatuies  smitten  with  disease,  lying  on  the  road-side,  passed  b5 
hundreds  of  their  co-religionists  with  no  more  concern  than  if  they 
were  dying  dogs  ;  we  have  seen  the  poor  parched  sufferers  with  folded 
hands  and  pleading  voice  crave  a  drop  of  water  to  moisten  their  lips, 
but  all  in  vain."     (Vaughan's  Tfidciit,  Crescent  and  Cross,  p.  31.) 


448  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

ness  of  many  classes.  The  two  great  causes,  however,  of 
the  want  of  progress  in  India,  as  compared  with  Europe, 
are  the  existence  of  caste  and  the  position  of  woman. 

Caste  is  not  improbably  a  result  of  conquest,  but  it  has 
been  strengthened  instead  of  weakened  by  the  religion  of 
the  Hindoos.  The  laws  or  precepts  of  Manu  (supposed 
to  date  back  to  the  early  centuries  after  Christ)  speak  of 
caste  (book  i.  8)  as  a  law  of  nature  and  of  Divine  appoint- 
ment, as  much  as  the  creation  of  different  animals. 

"  Since  the  Brahman  sprang  from  the  most  excellent  part,  since  he 
has  the  priority  arising  from  primogeniture,  and  since  he  possesses 
the  Veda,  he  is  by  right  lord  of  this  whole  creation  "  (i.  93). 

Even  the  Rig-veda,  as  quoted  by  Williams  ("Indian 
Wisdom")  makes  the  Brahman  to  issue  from  the  mouth 
of  Vishnu,  the  kingly  soldier  from  his  arms,  the  hus- 
bandman from  his  thighs,  and  the  servile  Sudra  to  come 
from  his  feet.  It  is  obvious  that  a  people  whose  religion 
stamps  such  social  divisions  on  their  organization,  cannot 
advance  under  modern  conditions.  All  observers  agree 
that  caste  in  India  makes  anything  like  modern  European 
progress  impossible.  The  first  effort  of  Christianity  on 
individual  Hindoos  is  of  course  to  abolish  caste  ideas 
and  prejudices.  Such  immovable  divisions  of  class  are 
opposed  to  the  foundation  principles  of  Christ's  doctrine. 

But  even  more  than  caste,  has  the  position  of  woman 
in  India  retarded  her  progress.  The  oldest  religious 
documents  and  many  of  the  older  laws  appear  to  have 
recognised  a  higher  influence  and  position  for  woman  than 
do  the  modern.  Still,  even  the  laws  of  Manu  assign  her  a 
very  inferior  rank.  The  wife  is  permitted  to  be  sold  or 
beaten  ;  she  is  spoken  of  as  having  no  will  of  her  own  and 
as  unfit  for  independence.^     A  husband  must  constantly 

'  Williams'  Indian  Wisdom,  p.  529. 


POSITION  OF   WOMAN  IN  INDIA.  449 

be  revered  as  a  god  by  a  virtuous  wife.  No  sacrifice  is 
allowed  to  women  apart  from  their  husbands  ;  no  reh"gious 
rites,  no  fasting.  ^  Even  the  Bhajavad  -  Gita  represents 
woman  as  entering  heaven  along  with  the  lowest  caste.^ 
Mill  ^  quotes  from  an  ancient  Hindoo  writing — the  Hito- 
padesa,  or  "  Book  of  Friendly  Advice," — 

"In  infancy,  the  father  should  guard  her;  in  youth,  her  husband ; 
and  in  old  a;4e,  her  children ;  for  at  no  time  is  a  woman  fit  to  be 
trusted  with  Hberty."  "  InfideHty,  violence,  deceit,  envy,  extrava- 
;,^ance,  a  total  want  of  good  qualities,  with  impurity,  are  the  innate 
faults  of  women." 

According  to  this  author,  she  could  not  under  the  old 
code  give  evidence  ;  she  could  not  share  in  the  paternal 
property  ;  she  was  by  system  deprived  of  education  ;  as 
a  wife  she  was  held  unworthy  to  eat  with  her  husband. 
The  latter  could  dismiss  her  on  the  smallest  pretexts,  but 
no  violence  or  desertion  or  sale  could  absolve  woman  from 
obligation  to  her  lord."  "  Day  and  night,"  say  the  pre- 
cepts of  Manu,  "  must  woman  be  held  by  her  protector  in 
a  state  of  dependence."^  "  By  a  girl  or  a  young  woman, 
or  by  a  woman  advanced  in  years,  nothing  must  be  done 
even  in  her  own  dwelling  according  to  her  own  mere 
pleasure."^  Nor  is  the  modern  position  of  woman  in  India 
superior  to  that  assigned  to  her  in  ancient  law  and  custom. 

"  No  Hindoo  woman,"  says  Williams,  "  has  in  theory  any  inde- 
pendence. It  is  not  merely  that  she  is  not  her  own  mistress ;  she  is 
not  her  own  property,  and  never  under  any  circumstances  can  be. 
She  belongs  to  her  father  first,  who  gives  her  away  to  her  husband,  tc 
whom  she  belongs  /"f/-  ever.  She  is  not  considered  capable  of  so  high 
a  form  of  religion  as  man,  and  she  does  not  mix  freely  in  society." ' 


'  Manu,v.  155.  »   Williams,^.  145. 

•  Hist,  of  India,  p.  295.  *  Mill,  vol.  i.  p.  297. 

•  Manu,  quoted  by  Mill.  •  Ibid. 
'  Indian  Wisdom,  p.  435. 

G  6 


4SO  GESTA   CHRTSTI. 

"  Home '  is  so  shut  in  by  the  close  shutters  of  caste  that  heahhy 
ventilation  is  impossible.  The  fresh  air  of  heaven  and  the  light  ol 
God's  day  have  no  free  entrance.  Weakly  children  are  brought  up 
by  ignorant,  superstitious,  narrow-minded  mothers  in  a  vitiated  atmo- 
sphere. Hence,  in  my  opinion,  the  present  deteriorated  character  and 
condition  of  a  large  majority  of  the  people  of  India." 

A  Hindoo  convert  to  Christianity  thus  describes  his 
feelings  in  regard  to  marriage : 

"Escaping  the  maladies  of  superstition  and  standing  under  the 
light  of  true  religion  with  feelings  of  love  and  refinement  in  my  heart 
I  shudder  at  and  clearly  see  the  defects  in  the  system  we  have  con- 
sidered. The  very  thought  of  marrying  a  person  whose  joys  and 
sorrows  I  am  to  participate  in,  who  is  to  become  one  with  me,  without 
knowing  her  character  and  seeing  her  face  at  all,  makes  me  shudder. 
.  .  .  In  Bengal,  with  many,  the  affection  between  husband  and 
wife  is  rather  compulsory  than  heart-felt.  True  love  does  rarely  grace 
the  connubial  life  of  the  Hindoo.  The  children  do  not  know  what 
innocent  social  comforts  are.  Vice  with  its  thousand  branches  twines 
round  their  lives.  Faithlessness  to  the  married  relation,  discord  be- 
tween and  separation  of  two  who  are  strictly  required  to  be  one,  are 
the  defective  features  of  Hindoo  families  in  general."  ^ 

We  hav^e  purposely  refrained  from  quoting  to  any  large 
extent  from  the  views  of  missionaries,  who  may  be  sup- 
posed on  this  subject  to  be  prejudiced.  But  even  Sir 
Henry  Maine,  who  regards  these  matters  from  a  peculiarly 
philosophical  standpoint,  attributes  in  a  passage  we  have 
already  quoted  (p.  35),  the  lack  of  progress  of  this  great 
branch  of  the  Aryan  family,  as  compared  with  the  Euro- 
pean, to  the  different  position  they  gave  to  woman. 
Whence  the  European  sentiment  and  practice  are  mainly 
derived,  we  have  already  seen. 

The  cruel  practices  once  habitual  in  India,  and  now  not 


•  Indian  Wisdom,  p.  137. 

•  Gangooly's  Life  and  Religion  of  the  Hindoos,  p.  53. 


BUDDHA   AN  INSPIRED    TEACHER.  451 

wholly  ^  abolished  by  the  influence  of  a  Christian  people, 
are  painful  evidences  of  the  want  of  humane  progress. 
Self-immolation,  human  sacrifices,  the  burning  of  widows, 
the  exposure  of  the  sick  and  feeble,  and  like  practices 
could  not  possibly  exist  where  Christianity  had  the 
slightest  power. 

Buddhism. — One  faith  has  existed  in  India  as  a  reform 
of  Brahmanism,  and  has  extended  to  China,  Japan,  and 
other  countries,  which  in  the  life  of  its  founder  and  the 
truths  he  taught,  showed  a  peculiar  Divine  inspiration  that 
brought  it  in  some  respects  very  near  to  Christianity. 
Undoubtedly  in  the  original  form  of  this  religion  are  seen 
the  workings  of  the  Divine  Spirit  on  a  most  pure  and 
exalted  human  soul.  Indeed  the  truths  taught  by  Gautama- 
Buddha  seem  to  be  fore-gleams  of  those  taught  by  Chris^.^ 
Never  has  compassion  been  more  Divinely  illustrated  in  a 
human  life  ;  nowhere  are  self-sacrifice,  human  brotherhood, 
universal  benevolence  and  sympathy,  and  purity  of  heart 
and  life  more  directly  taught  than  in  the  words  transmitted 
of  Sakya  Muni.  The  Buddhist  legends  might  well  teach 
that  all  nature  budded  into  spring  and  a  thrill  of  joy  reached 
every  animated  being,  that  the  blind  saw  and  the  dumb 
spake,  that  prisoners  were  set  free  and  the  flames  of  hell 
extinguished,  and  a  mighty  sound  of  music  arose  from 
heaven  and  earth,^  when  a  human  soul  so  pure  and  holy 
and  thus  filled  with  an  almost  infinite  compassion,  began 
its  life  in  the  body. 

'  Ball  speaks  of  sacrifices  of  children  practised  in  India  as  late  as 
1 861,  and  as  not  wholly  broken  up  in  1879.     {Jungle Life,  etc.,  p.  608  ) 

-  See  Alabaster's  Wheel  of  the  Law,  and  numberless  Lives  0/ 
Buddha.  Also  The  Aiigel  Messiah,  by  E.  von  Bunsen,  1880  ;  and 
Beal's  Roinaiit.  Hist,  of  Sakya  Budda,  from  the  Chinese  Sanscrit, 
1875  ;  and  Catena  of  Buddh.  Script.,  frona  the  Chinese,  187 1, 

^  Alabaster's  IVheel,  etc 


4?2  GESTA    CHRISTL 

Nor  has  this  life  been  a  failure.  The  humanity,  courtes}'^ 
mercy  and  brotherhood  exhibited  by  countless  multitudes 
of  Asiatics,  are  without  doubt  largely  the  fruit  of  these 
teachings.^ 

But  the  soul  of  the  saintly  Hindoo  seemed  not  sufficiently 
open  to  the  Divine  influences,  or  his  mind  was  too  much 
under  the  power  of  Indian  mythology,  so  that  the  final  aim 
and  consummation  of  his  belief  lacked  the  simplicity  and 
reality  of  Christianity.  He  could  not  offer  a  great  hope 
to  mankind,  but  only  a  cessation  of  the  eternal  changes 
of  metempsychosis,  and  the  quietude  of  Nirvana,  where 
no  desire  or  pain  or  pleasure  or  sin  should  ever  invade 
the  eternal  repose.  It  has  to  some  of  his  followers  been 
the  repose  of  annihilation  ;  to  others  the  pcice  of  blessed 
absorption  into  Deity  and  of  loss  of  personality ;  to 
others  the  eternal  rest  of  the  heavy-laden  in  the  bosom 
of  God.  The  vagueness  of  the  hope,  the  lack  of  sublime 
simplicity  in  the  teachings,  the  want  of  an  overpowering 
faith  in  the  "  Heavenly  Father,"  and  a  certain  absence  of 
consciousness  of  perfect  union  with  the  Infinite  Spirit, 
will  perhaps  account  for  the  failure  of  Buddhism  in  pro- 
moting the  progress  of  Asia  as  compared  with  Christianity 
in  Europe.  The  Divine  Spirit  was  moving  in  the  self- 
sacrificing  Indian  prince  and  in  many  of  his  intuitions 
and  the  truths  taught  by  him  ;  but  not  as  in  Christ.  His 
truth  early  gathered  around  it  gross  superstitions ;  it 
degenerated  into  senseless  idolatry  ;  it  developed  useless 
asceticism  and  ecclesiasticism  ;  it  was  accompanied  with 
the  most  mechanical  routine  service,  instead  of  a  free  moral 
and  spiritual  life.  Buddhism  has  not  seemed  cajoable  of 
urging  on  a  steady  moral  and  humane  progress  as  Chris- 

'  See  Miss  Bird's  description  of  the  remarkable  kindness  and  good 
nature  of  the  Japanese,  the  effects  of  a  failh  they  had  given  up, — 
T^'"^dhism. 


THE  FATLITRE  OF  BUDDHISM.  453 

tianity  has  done.  It  was  evidently  not  fit  for  all  stages 
of  human  growth.  Yet  the  student  of  moral  develop- 
ment must  ever  be  grateful,  that  so  high  a  type  of 
human  Faith  has  sustained  such  countless  millions  of  the 
human  race  during  so  many  centuries.  Back  of  all  its 
idolatry,  superstition  and  wild  fancies,  many  a  simple 
believer  must  have  seen  a  noble  form,  bearing  the  burdens 
of  mankind,  most  "like  unto  the  Son  of  man,"  and  through 
him,  he  has  been  led  to  worship,  "  ignorantly  "  it  may  be, 
the  Infinite  Father,  and  to  work  "righteousness,"  so  far  as 
human  weakness  permitted,  and  "  hath  been  accepted  with 
Him  "  ^  through  His  infinite  mercy. 

Some  forms,  too,  of  practical  charity  have  sprung  up 
under  it — such  as  shelters  for  travellers,  hospitals  for  the 
sick,  foundling  asylums,  and  similar  charities.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  first  hospitals  in  the  world's  history  for 
diseased  men  and  animals  were  founded  by  the  Indian 
Buddhists.  But  these  have  not  been  continued  to  any 
great  extent. 

Buddhism  entered  China  when  two  systems  held  sway  ; 
one  of  a  philosophic  transcendental  Rationalism,  Taoism,^ 
and  the  other  of  a  most  exalted  philanthropy,  which  neither 
denied  nor  affirmed  supernatural  facts,  Confucianism. 

In  China,  Buddhism  besides  exerting  its  higher  influence, 
supplied  in  its  corrupt  form  a  gross  superstition  as  a  satis- 
faction to  the  religious  wants  of  man's  nature.  The  truths 
of  Confucius,  though  in  many  respects  elevated  and  filled 
with  the  sense  of  human  brotherhood,  not  being  connected 
with  pure  Religion,  failed  to  stimulate  to  an  ever-moving 
progress.  They  cultivated  good  will,  and  filial  pity,  and 
public  duty,  and  outward  propriety ;  but  they  did  not  offer 
inducements  so  powerful,  or  such  personal  aff"ection  for  a 
supernatural  Teacher,  or  the  sense  of  God  and  Immortality, 
^  Acts  X.  34,  35.  *  See  Johnson's  Oriental  Religions — China. 


454  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

sufficient  to  overcome  human  selfishness.  They  gave  a 
great  and  ingenious  race  enough  to  satisfy  present  needs, 
and  with  the  superstition  of  Buddhism,  to  leave  it  in  one 
fixed  condition.  We  find  in  consequence  in  China,  abuses 
which  belonged  to  Europe  before  Christianity  had  attained 
to  much  influence.  Infanticide,  despite  the  denials  of  certain 
authorities,  is  undoubtedly  fearfully  prevalent  in  certain 
districts  ;  children  are  sold  as  slaves  ;  ^  even  a  wife  is  some- 
times sold  ;  slavery  is  common  and  torture  is  still  in  use. 
Confucius  taught  blood-revenge  : 

"  Recompense  injury  with  justice,"  he  said,  "  and  kindness  with 
kindness."^  "He  who  recompenses  injury  with  kindness  is  a  man 
who  is  careful  of  his  person."  "  With  the  slayer  of  his  father,  a  man 
may  not  Hve  under  the  same  heaven ;  against  the  slayer  of  his  brother, 
a  man  must  never  have  to  go  home  to  fetch  a  weapon ;  with  the  slayer 
of  his  friend,  a  man  may  not  live  in  the  same  state."  ^ 

From  such  teachings  may  have  arisen  the  long  con- 
tinuance of  "  feuds  "  in  China. 

The  alleged  insincerity  of  the  Chinese  is  thought  to  be 
due  to  certain  instructions  of  this  great  teacher,  where  he 
permits  truth  to  be  waived.  * 

There  is  no  such  teaching  of  humanity  by  Confucius  as 
to  affect  the  relations  of  China  with  other  countries  ;  there 
is  no  especial  respect  for  foreigners,  and  other  races  are 
looked  at  as  barbarians.  The  peculiar  isolation  of  China, 
as  regards  other  countries,  is  no  doubt  partly  due  to  this 
defect  in  this  great  teacher's  instructions.  Woman  is 
undoubtedly  in  an  inferior  position  in  China. 

•  A  vigorous  effort  has  been  made  by  the  British  during  the  year  1883 
to  break  up  this  atrocious  tniffic  by  parents  in  their  own  chikhcn  ia 
Hong  Kong.     (See  London  spectator,  April  26,  1882). 

^  Ana,  XXV.  26. 

'  Legge's  Life  of  Confucius,  p.  1 14. 

*  Aua,  xvii.  20  ;   vi.  13. 


FAILURE   OF  CONFUCIANISM.  455 

**Man  is  the  representathe  of  heaven,"  says  this  philosopher,  "  and 
is  the  supreme  over  all  things.  Woman  yields  obedience  to  the 
instruction  of  man  and  helps  to  carry  out  his  principles.  On  this 
account,  she  can  determine  nothing  of  herself,  and  is  subject  to  the 
rule  of  the  three  obediences:  when  j'oung  she  must  obey  her  father 
and  elder  brother;  when  married,  her  huoijand;  when  her  husband 
is  old,  she  must  obey  her  son."  ' 

The  position  of  woman  in  China  is  evidently  one  of  the 
causes  of  the  skiggish  condition  of  that  country  during  so 
many  centuries.  Woman  has  apparently  Httle  important 
part  there,  either  socially,  politically  or  morally  ;  though 
she  has  figured  somewhat  in  Chinese  literature. 

And  yet  for  the  assistance  of  its  moral  progress,  there 
has  been  no  deification  of  vice  in  the  Chinese  religion,  nor 
human  sacrifice,  and  a  most  pure  and  elevated  literature. 

It  is  to  be  admitted,  however,  when  all  things  are  said, 
that  we  know  but  little  about  the  permanent  and  profound 
influences  affecting  the  Chinese  people.  It  would  seem  that 
this  benevolent  and  monotonous  type  of  society,  without 
enthusiasm  and  with  many  secret  vices,  with  no  element  in 
it  of  great  and  heroic  progress  and  suited  to  a  certain 
condition  of  immovability  for  countless  centuries,  may  be 
a  type  of  the  future  of  the  civilized  world,  should  a  phil- 
anthropic Rationalism  take  the  place  of  the  Christian 
Religion. 

Confucius  might  well  be  the  saint  of  modern  Agnosti- 
cism. 

It  may  be  justly  urged,  however,  that  the  followers  of 
both  Gautama-Buddha  and  of  Confucius  have  never  fully 
lived  up  to  the  principles  and  teachings  of  their  masters. 
But  on  the  other  hand  it  may  be  fairly  replied,  that  there 
was  not  in  themselves  and  their  doctrines  sufificient  of  the 
life-giving  impulse,  or  of  Divine  power,  to  overcome  the 
selfishness  and  indifference  of  men  ;  so  that  as  ages  go  by 
*  l-egge's  Transladon,  p.  103. 


4S6  GESTA    CHRISTT. 

and  civilization  advances,  those  religious  or  moral  beliefs 
no  longer  greatly  influence  their  believers  and  are  poorly 
adapted  to  the  new  conditions  of  the  world.  A  lamentable 
instance  of  the  failure  of  Buddhism  ^  seems  to  be  afforded 
by  the  present  condition  of  Japan.  Travellers  picture  the 
Japanese  as  people  without  religion  and  without  hope.  A 
current  and  favourite  proverb  is,  that  "  the  worst  thing  you 
can  wish  a  man  is  to  live  again."  As  the  old  faith  has  died 
out  there  is  nothing  left  but  its  unconscious  effects  and  the 
habits  taught  by  it,  to  stem  the  tide  of  selfishness ;  and 
the  people  seem  given  up,  say  very  candid  observers,  to 
"  licentiousness  and  untruthfulness,"  while  a  deep  shade  oi 
melancholy  settles  over  all.  The  great  doctrine  of  Sakya 
Muni  that  the  "  End  of  Righteousness  is  Rest,"  has  de- 
generated into  the  dogma  that  the  "End  of  Righteousness 
is  Nothingness,"  and  a  night  of  unbelief  and  hopelessness 
has  fallen  over  a  whole  race. 

The  Arabs. — The  Arabs,  whom  we  have  chosen  also  for 
comparison  with  European  peoples,  were  in  a  high  con- 
dition of  civilization  when  Europe  was  in  barbarism.  The 
Spanish  Arabs  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  drawing 
their  inspiration  perhaps  from  an  older  civilization,  were 
as  much  superior  intellectually  to  the  French,  Germans, 
and  English  of  that  age,  as  are  these  peoples  now  to 
Afghans  or  Turks.  In  the  arts  and  sciences  and  many 
of  the  best  fruits  of  civilization,  in  refinement  and  intellect, 
the  Mohammedans  of  the  Middle  Ages,  both  of  Europe 
and  Asia,  far  exceeded  the  Christian  nations.  They  fol- 
lowed, too,  a  faith  which  contained  one  great  Divine  truth, 
the  existence  of  one  infinite  and  spiritual  Creator,  to  whom 
all  men  were  responsible.  They  abhorred  idol  worship, 
and  no  doubt  often  came  in  contact  with  nominal  Chris- 
tians,  who  were  farther  removed  than  themselves  from 
'  See  Miss  Bird's  interesting  journey  in  Japan. 


INFLUENCE   OF  MOHAMMEDANISM.  457 

the  spiritual  worship  taught  in  the  Bible.  But  the 
sensuality  encouraged  by  their  faith  ;  the  cruelty  and 
bigotry  taught  by  it ;  the  fatalism  implied  in  it ;  the  per- 
mission given  in  it  to  polygamy,  divorce  and  slavery, 
proved  that  it  was  not  the  religion  of  the  future,  not  the 
religion  of  humanity,  and  must  come  to  an  end.  In  fact, 
the  many  false  and  evil  elements  in  Mohammedanism 
have  made  it  one  of  the  curses  of  mankind.  It  has 
spread  abroad  the  spirit  of  cruelty  and  lust,  and  under 
it  are  found  the  unnatural  vices,  ^  and  the  oppression  of 
subject  races,  and  the  degradation  of  women,  which  be- 
longed to  Europe  before  the  era  of  Christianity.  Its 
teachings  of  the  doctrine  of  fatalism  are  an  insurmount- 
able obstacle  to  all  advance,  whether  in  civilization  or 
morals.  Man  becomes  the  mere  sport  and  implement  of  an 
irresistible  destiny.  It  has  in  it  no  element  of  permanent 
social  and  moral  progress.  The  science  and  intellect  of 
some  of  the  races  which  embraced  it  could  not  save  it. 
It  so  lacks  the  Christian  respect  for  the  individual,  and 
the  Christian  benevolence,  that  it  never  suits  itself  to 
liberal  government  or  to  advanced  civilization.  The 
splendour  of  Spanish  and  Asiatic  Arab  art  and  archi- 
tecture is  only  seen  in  ruins  ;  the  science  which  once  led 
the  world  in  investigation  only  remains  in  words  which 
have  become  histories,  and  in  discoveries  which  have  pre- 
ceded modern  research,   while   the  barbaric  tribes  whom 

'  See  Mussulmans  of  India,  W.  W.  Hunter ;  and  many  travels 
in  Turkey.  It  is  difficult  even  to  speak  on  this  subject  to  modern  ears, 
but  the  testimony  of  intelligent  travellers  and  observers,  long  resident 
in  Turkey,  show  that  the  Turkish  race  is  eaten  up  with  unnatural 
vices,  and  that  the  Mohammedan  faith  does  not  check  them.  See 
also  Monier  Williams,  Nineteenth  Century,  July,  1882. 

Williams  writes  the  name  Muhammad,  as  directly  derived  from  the 
passive  participle  of  the  verb  hamada^  "  to  praise,"  "  the  praised  one," 
"  the  glorious," 


458  GESTA    CHRISTL 

the  followers  of  Mohammed  then  so  despised,  and  who 
were  in  such  low  intellectual  and  moral  condition  during 
the  Arabic  period  of  glory,  now  lead  the  world's  progress. 

The  difference  has  not  been  evidently  in  vigour  of  race, 
or  in  intellect,  or  acquired  science  and  learning,  or  in 
language.  The  Turkish  conquest  is,  of  course,  one  reason 
of  the  change  ;  but  the  great  cause  has  lain  in  those 
peculiar  and  subtle  influences  which  Christianity  has 
gradually  instilled  into  European  races.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  Mohammedanism  could  not  rise 
above  its  source.  It  illustrated  or  exaggerated  every- 
where the  vices  of  its  leader.  It  left  behind  it,  whether 
in  Spain,  Sicily,  Egypt,  or  Bagdad,  anarchy,  corruption, 
and  horrible  social  evils.  Still  it  is  but  just  to  note  that 
certain  Mohammedans,  who  have  probably  come  under 
the  influence  of  the  purer  Persian  faith  and  of  Buddhism, 
as  well  as  of  the  "  Soofi "  mysticism,  have  attained  to  a 
religion  as  elevated  and  earnest,  though  not  so  humane 
and  practical,  as  Christianity  itself.  The  Divine  Spirit 
apparently  inspired  such  a  preacher  as  Ghazzali.^ 

With  Mohammedan  races,  slavery  largely  prevails ; 
polygamy  is  permitted  ;  divorce  is  comparatively  free. 
In  Arabia  and  on  the  African  coast,  blood  revenge  and 
feud  still  exist.  In  Turkey,  unnatural  vice  is  common  ; 
woman  is  in  a  most  degraded  position ;  divorces  are 
almost  daily  ;  ^  and  cruelty  of  the  most  horrible  descrip 

'  Les  peuples  d'Orient  sont  tellement  imbues  de  I'idde  de  la  force, 
ils  sont  tellement  fagonn^s  depuis  des  siecles  k  la  soumission,  qu'ils 
ne  comprennent  pas  au  juste  la  puissance  du  droit. — Des  causes  de  la 
decadence,  etc.     Acad.  d.  Sc.  etc.,  1877,  p.  193. 

-  He  appeared  in  the  eleventh  century.  See  the  beautiful  trans- 
lation of  his  Alchemy  of  Happiness,  by  H.  A.  Homes,  1873. 

^  Rev.  Dr.  Washburne,  President  of  Robert's  College,  Constanti- 
nople, assures  me  that  he  has  known  Turks  to  divorce  their  wives 
day  after  day.     It  is  a  very  general  practice. 


EFFECTS  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM.  459 

tion  towards  prisoners  or  those  conquered  is  well  known. 
In  Arabia,  a  favourite  proverb  is  "The  threshold  weeps 
four  days  when  a  girl  is  born.^  Another  Arabic  proverb 
teaches  that  "  to  send  women  beforehand  to  the  other 
world  is  a  benefit,"  and  that  "  the  best  son-in-law  is  the 
grave."  Wife-beating  seems  taught  in  the  Koran,^  as  it 
is  the  custom  in  Mohammedan  countries,  and  wife  murdei 
is  not  uncommon  in  Syria.^  The  modern  testimony  as 
to  the  effect  of  Mohammedanism  on  the  Arabs  of  Syria 
is  overwhelming  ;  we  have  space  for  but  few  quotations. 
Says  a  convert, 

"  How  few  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  women  in  Syria  know 
how  to  read  !  How  few  are  the  schools  ever  established  for  teaching 
women.  Any  one  who  denies  the  degradation  and  ignorance  of 
Syrian  women,  would  deny  the  existence  of  the  noonday  sun.  Do 
not  men  shun  even  allusion  to  women,  and  if  obliged  to  speak  of 
them,  do  they  not  accompany  the  remark  with  'ajellak  Allali,  as  if 
they  were  speaking  of  a  brute  beast  or  filthy  object  ?  Are  they  not 
treated  among  us  very  much  as  among  barbarians?"* 

An  article  from  Le  Liban,  an  official  journal  of  Daud 
Pasha,  Governor  of  Mount  Lebanon,  printed  in  1867,^  says, 

"  So  in  former  times,  the  man  was  the  absolute  tyrant  of  the 
family.  The  wife  was  the  slave,  never  to  be  seen  by  others.  And  if 
in  conversation  it  became  necessary  to  mention  her  name,  it  would  be 
by  saying  this  was  done  by  my  wife,  'ajellak  Allah  !®  But  now  there 
is  a  change,  and  woman  is  no  longer  regarded  as  worthy  of  contempt 
and  abuse ;  and  the  progress  being  made  in  the  emancipation  and 


*  Jessup's  Women  of  the  Arabs. 

'  Sura  iv.  "  But  chide  thou  those  for  whose  refractoriness  ve  have 
cause  to  fear     .     .     .     and  scourge  them." 
^  yessup. 

*  Essay  of  Mr.  Bistany,  read  before  the   Beirut  Literary  Society 
1849,  quoted  by  Mr.  Jessup,  p.  159. 

'  Jessup,  p.  1 78. 

^  The  Irish  phrase  is  parallel,  "  Saving  your  Reverence  I" 


46o  GESTA   CHRIST!. 

elevation  of  woman  is  one  of  the  noblest  and  best  proofs  of  the  reai 
progress  of  Lebanon  in  the  paths  of  morality  and  civilization.'' 

**  In  Algiers,"  Seguin  says,  "the  Mohammedan  invariably 
buys  his  wife  ;  he  pays  a  price  for  her  to  her  family."  ^ 

"When  an  Arab  woman  marries,  she  is  sure  only  that  she  will  be  a 
slave  ;  but  who  can  tell  how  many  domestic  tortures  she  will  have  to 
endure  ? " 

The  conception  of  God  in  the  Koran  is  not  of  a  father, 
but  of  an  inscrutable  despot.  "  Verily,"  says  this  book, 
"there  is  none  in  the  heavens  and  on  earth  but  shall 
approach  the  God  of  mercy  as  a  slave,"  and  the  duty  is 
laid  upon  the  faithful  of  being  the  agents  of  God's  wrath 
on  those  who  believe  not.^  The  two  great  Christian  ideas 
at  the  base  of  modern  progress — the  fatherhood  of  God 
and  brotherhood  of  man — are  wanting  in  Islam.  The 
Christian  ideas  at  the  basis  of  modern  international  law 
are  unknown  to  Mohammedanism.  War  is  the  ordinance 
of  God,  and  public  faith  need  not  be  kept  with  infidels  or 
aliens^ 

*  Walks  in  Algiers,  p.  517. 

*  See  Osborne's  Islam  in  Arabia,  p.  27. 

3  Hedaya  ix.  Mill's  Koran,  p.  330.  "  Oh,  Prophet  !  stir  up  the 
faithful  to  war  ;  if  twenty  of  you  persevere  with  constancy,  they 
shall  conquer  two  hundred  ;  and  if  there  be  one  hundred  of  you,  they 
shall  overcome  two  thousand  by  the  permission  of  God,  for  God  is 
with  those  who  persevere.  It  hath  not  been  granted  to  any  prophet 
that  he  should  possess  captives,  until  he  had  made  a  great  slaughter 
of  the  infidels  on  the  earth"  (Sale's  Koran,  chap.  5).  "When  ye 
encounter  the  infidels,  strike  off  their  heads  until  ye  have  made  a 
great  slaughter  among  them.     .     .  Verily  if  God  is  pleased,  he 

could  take  vengeance  on  them  without  your  assistance  ;  but  he  com- 
manded you  to  fight  his  battles  that  he  might  prove  the  one  of  you 
by  the  other.  As  to  those  who  fight  in  defence  of  God's  true 
religion,  God  will  not  suffer  their  works  to  perish  ;  he  will  lead  them 
into  Paradise  ol  which  he  hath  told  them.  Oh  !  true  believers  !  for 
his  religion  he  will  assist  you  against  your  enemies  "  {Idid.,  chap.  47), 


CLIMATE  NOT  THE  CAUSE  OF  DIFFERENCE.     461 

It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  Mohammedanism  en- 
couraged kindness  to  the  poor.  Alms  are  "a  loan  to 
God " ;  they  "  deliver  from  hell  and  secure  Paradise." 
The  first  lunatic  asylums  are  said  to  owe  their  origin  to 
this  Faith.  It  taught  also  great  kindness  to  animals,  and 
admitted  them  to  a  future  state  of  existence. 

We  should  not  forget  also  that  Mohammed  attempted 
to  reform  his  times  by  suppressing  infanticide,  inculcating 
temperance,  and  prohibiting  gambling  and  divination.^ 

It  can  hardly  be  urged  that  climate  alone  has  caused  all 
these  differences  between  the  non-Christian  and  the  Chris- 
tian peoples.  The  Christian  religion,  looked  at  materially, 
is  a  product  of  a  warm  climate.  Some  of  its  purest  and 
noblest  disciples,  who  still  profoundly  influence  the  world, 
were  natives  or  residents  under  almost  a  tropical  sun.  Its 
great  conquests  indeed  have  been  won  among  northern 
races  ;  but  with  them  it  had  especial  obstacles,  owing  to  the 
northern  predisposition  to  intemperance  and  the  greater 
struggle  for  existence  necessary  in  colder  climates.  On  the 
other  hand,  two  of  these  faiths,  the  system  of  Confucius 
and  the  religion  of  Mohammed,  cover  many  regions  where 
the  climates  are  severe  and  cold.  The  great  standard- 
bearers  of  Mohammedanism — the  Turks — were  a  northern 
and  vigorous  race,  and  the  Arabs  have  none  of  the  habits 
of  a  tropical  people ;  indeed  the  latter  are  closely  allied  to 
the  founders  of  Christianity — the  Jews. 

A  tropical  climate  undoubtedly  tends  to  degrade  the 
position  of  woman,  in  relaxing  her  energy  and  exposing 
her  purity.  But  this  evil  is  no  greater  than  the  tendency 
of  a  northern  climate  to  stimulate  intemperance.  Chris- 
tianity is  adapted  to  restrain  and  remove  both  evils.  It 
may  be  true  that  for  this  Faith  some  races  are  more  fitted 
Monier  Williams. 


462  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

than  others  ;  but  all  races  can  be  improved  and  perhaps 
regenerated  by  it. 

Buddhism  and  Brahmanism  have  substantially  failed  of 
d  great  moral  progress  in  India,  China,  and  Japan  ;  they 
are  proved  not  to  be  the  absolute  religions.  Confucianism 
has  produced  no  great  progress  in  China  ;  and  Mohamme- 
danism has  utterly  failed  everywhere  except  with  certain 
barbarous  tribes  in  Africa. 

It  would  not  perhaps  be  reasonable  to  argue  from  the 
imperfect  fruits  of  these  religions,  that  they  were  failures. 
It  might  fairly  be  alleged  that  they  had  not  yet  existed 
during  sufficient  time.  But  we  can  urge  that,  from  their 
very  nature  and  structure,  they  are  not  fitted  for  all  phases 
of  human  development.  They  are  not  universal  and  abso- 
lute religions,  and  adapted  to  bring  about  the  highest 
humane  and  moral  progress. 

Were  the  world  thoroughly  and  consistently  Buddhistic 
or  Confucian,  it  would  be  anything  but  a  world  fitted  for 
the  highest  conditions  of  human  advancement,  or  for  the 
ideals  of  the  mind.  It  could  not  long  live  up  even  to  its 
own  principles,  as  it  would  lack  the  life-giving  powei 
aftbrded  by  Christianity. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

OBJECTIONS.        RESUME     OF     REFORMS     BEGUN.        THE 
FUTURE   OF   MANKIND   UNDER   CHRISTIANITY 

The  points  necessary  at  the  close  of  our  investigation  to 
consider,  are  :  whether,  supposing  the  Christian  system  to 
prevail  and  to  thoroughly  imbue  individuals  and  society 
in  all  directions,  this  would  form  the  highest  type  of  char- 
acter and  the  final  and  perfect  development  of  mankind  ; 
whether  if  all  the  world  were  Christian,  it  would  be  the 
world  of  our  ideals. 

It  is  often  and  naturally  objected^  that  the  Christian 
character  of  the  future  will  be  deficient  in  the  courageous 
and  manly  principles,  and  will  not  have  been  tried  in  the 
fiery  furnace  of  discipline  of  the  past — namely  War. 

But  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  natural  conditions 
of  the  world,  the  struggle  with  the  great  forces  of  nature, 
,vill  always  cultivate  physical  courage  ;  and  the  eternal 
necessity  in  human  society  of  defending  the  weak,  rebuking 
wrong,  standing  by  the  unpopular  cause,  and  even  incurring 
shame  and  loss  for  the  truth,  will  always  train  moral 
courage.  Kven  if  csons  lience,  society  should  approach  its 
complete  development,  the  inevitable  accidents  and  chances 
of  life  would  continually  call  for  the  highest  kind  of 
courage.  Even  now  in  modern  wars,  there  is  little  demand 
for  savage  pugnacity  or  a  bloody  revengeful  temper,  but 

'  See  Renan,  A/arc  Aurde,  p.  ;95.     ,    .     .     mais  une  societd  de 
parfaits  serait  si  faible  ! 

4«3 


464  GESTA    CHRISTL 

rather  for  a  cool  brain,  unshaken  nerve,  the  will  which 
defeat  cannot  break,  and  that  state  of  mind  which  simply 
disregards  death  and  wounds  where  duty  lies  before.  The 
courage  most  needed  in  modern  battles  is  simply  a  readi- 
ness to  be  torn  in  pieces  by  machinery  at  the  post  of  duty. 
Great  numbers  of  persons  fight  through  a  campaign  with- 
out ever  seeing  a  personal  opponent. 

As  civilization  advances  the  moral  courage  will  be  more 
and  more  demanded  ;  and  physical  nerve  and  resolution 
will  be  gained,  without  exciting  the  violent  passions,  by 
struggles  with  nature.  The  unconquerable  determination 
to  overcome  difficulties,  the  contempt  of  death,  the  scorn 
of  cowardice  as  worse  than  death,  the  heroism  which  could 
throw  away  life  like  a  straw  for  victory — which  have  been 
the  crowning  gains  and  glories  of  war  in  the  past — might 
easily  be  shown  by  men  in  a  world  which  had  grown 
beyond  war  in  their  struggles  with  nature,  with  the  tre- 
mendous forces  around  them,  and  amid  the  inevitable 
accidents  and  chances  of  life. 

The  Christian  ideal  has  always  been  far  in  advance  of 
past  ages  ;  it  is  still  beyond  our  present  condition.  Men 
can  only  make  a  compromise  between  it  and  the  necessary 
demands  of  the  times.  But  the  compromise  continually 
approaches,  century  by  century,  the  original  ideal.  It  would 
be  difficult  now  (though  not  impossible)  for  an  individual 
to  conform  his  life  to  these  higher  principles  and  survive 
in  the  struggle  for  existence.  As  each  century  passes 
it  becomes  easier.  It  would  be  in  this  age  apparently 
impossible  for  a  nation  to  conform  to  these  principles,  and 
survive.  But  in  each  century  the  nations  approach  them 
more  nearly.  As  society  advances,  the  Christian  type  ot 
character  will  become  more  suited  to  the  surrounding  con- 
ditions, and  there  is  no  reason  to  fear,  that  man  under  this 
moulding,  will   be  shaped  in  any  weak  or  unmanly  form. 


OBJECTIONS   TO   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL.  465 

All  that  a  barbarous  and  bloody  past  gave  of  vigour  and 
courage,  will  be  given  by  a  future  of  peace  and  humanity 
under  the  unavoidable  dangers  and  chances  of  life. 

A  similar  objection  is  that  the  Christian  type  of  char- 
acter would  in  its  unselfishness  unfit  men  for  the  struggle 
for  existence,  and  that  the  followers  of  this  morality  and 
Religion  would  be  over-reached  by  the  "  children  of  this 
world,"  and  finally  worsted  in  the  contest.  But  the  Chris- 
tian teachings  do  not  require  to  love  others  more  than  self, 
but  as  ourselves.  And  the  highest  Christian  benevolence 
teaches  that  the  selfishness  of  others  must  sometimes  be 
resisted  for  their  sake,  even  more  than  our  own.  It  is  true 
that  as  society  and  trade  are  constituted  now,  a  complete 
living  after  the  Christian  ideal  is  difficult,  but  with  each 
generation,  a  greater  harmony  arises  between  the  conditions 
and  this  type  of  character.  Even  now  it  is  not  certain  that 
a  society  completely  governed  by  the  Christian  morality 
might  not  exist  successfully  amid  the  selfish  and  jarring 
interests  of  the  world.  It  is  easily  conceivable  that  the 
world  might  advance  with  all  its  present  progress,  and  yet 
all  societies  be  inspired  by  these  elevated  principles.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  Christian  ideal  which  unfits  a  man  for  the 
utmost  activity  and  vigour ;  and  if  this  activity  regard 
the  rights  of  others  and  consult  their  interests,  it  will  not 
be  the  less  likely  to  attain  its  objects.  At  all  events,  with 
each  advancing  century,  this  type  of  character  will  be  moro 
fit  for  its  conditions  and  surroundings. 

It  has  often  been  urged  in  these  pages  that  the  teachings 
of  the  great  Master  were  in  no  way  inconsistent  either 
with  modern  advance  in  rational  accumulation  of  wealth 
or  in  institutions  of  political  liberty,  though  objections 
urging  this  have  often  been  made  against  this  moral  system.^ 

'  See  even  so  candid  a  writer  as  Laurent  {Hist,  du  Droit  des  Gens) 
and  Renan,  and  others. 

H  H 


466  GESTA   CHRISTI 

The  type  of  character  moulded  by  this  system  is  essen« 
tially  the  self-controlled,  the  earnest,  the  one  careful  of  the 
claims  of  others  and  responsible  to  a  higher  Power.  Such 
a  character  under  modern  conditions  must  be  industrious 
and  saving  and  laborious.  Idleness,  dependence,  self- 
indulgence  or  extravagance  would  equally  be  inconsistent 
with  its  ideals.  It  is  true  that  the  teachings  of  Jesus  set 
themselves  against  an  excessive  pursuit  of  wealth,  and  to 
His  immediate  disciples,  enforced  communism  of  goods. 
But,  considering  Oriental  metaphors  and  the  peculiar  con- 
ditions which  surrounded  our  Lord,  it  may  be  doubted  it 
He  urged  for  all  men  anything  more  than  a  greater  dis- 
tribution of  property  than  had  ever  been  known.  The 
Apostles  apparently  thus  interpreted  His  words.  There 
is  in  His  teachings,  an  ideal  in  regard  to  property  which  is 
far  in  advance  of  the  social  progress  of  mankind.  A  future, 
in  which,  after  all  reasonable  tastes  and  wants  of  every 
kind  had  been  satisfied,  accumulation  was  entirely  devoted 
to  the  public  good,  would  not  be  one  with  which  political 
economy  has  reason  to  quarrel  or  which  would  discourage 
industry.  It  would  offer  to  labour  the  highest  reward  which 
the  most  benevolent  nature  could  seek.  Nothing  like  de- 
pendence or  idleness  is  a  legitimate  fruit  of  Christianity. 
The  monasticism  of  history  has  not  come  from  Christ, 
nor  is  that  charity  which  degrades  the  sufferer  in  helping 
him  and  which  sows  other  evils  in  curing  the  nearest,  His 
teaching.  The  drift  of  all  His  words  is  to  seek  one's 
happiness  in  the  ultimate  highest  happiness  of  all  ;  to  love 
others  as  one's  self,  and  God  above  all.  The  true  Christian 
cannot  knowingly  do  a  man  good  in  a  way  which  will 
injure  him  ultimately,  or  will  injure  society. 

The  peculiarity  of  Christ's  teachings,  as  has  often  been 
said^  in  regard  to  political  matters,  was  that  He  left  them 
entirely  on  one  side,  but  threw  in  a  principle  into  human 


CHRISTl  4NITY  AND  LIBERTY.  467 

society  which  was  destined  in  after  ages  to  overthrow  or 
modify  all  existing  institutions  and  governments.  The 
value  attached  by  Him  to  the  individual,  has  affected  all 
modern  political  systems  and  is  destined  to  do  so  more 
and  more.  The  bond  of  humanity  He  taught  is  already 
connecting  persons  under  various  forms  of  government, 
and  is  certain  hereafter  to  reform  governments  and  the 
relations  of  nations. 

It  is  true  that  the  early  Apostles,  under  the  peculiar 
conditions  of  the  Roman  empire  at  the  time,  taught  a 
submission  to  authority  which  cannot  be  a  universal 
duty.  But  the  essential  character  exemplified  by  Christ 
contained  no  elements  which  form  the  instrument  or  the 
victim  of  tyranny.  A  man  trained  to  live  in  the  great 
Task-master's  eye,  looking  at  all  men  as  equal  before 
God,  holding  beliefs  which  no  human  authority  could 
give  or  take  away,  determined  to  render  to  all  their  dues, 
and  habitually  looking  beyond  human  ranks  and  dis- 
tinctions, could  not  in  the  nature  of  things  be  long  a 
supporter  of  despotism  whether  in  church  or  state.  The 
Christian  is  essentially  a  believer  in  individual  liberty 
whatever  be  the  form  of  government ;  the  tendency  of 
the  Christian  system  is  to  permit  all  men  to  enjoy  the 
utmost  development  of  their  faculties,  and  to  oppose  un- 
limited authority.  The  highest  development  of  a  con- 
trolled liberty  to  ivery  man  and  every  woman,  is  the 
natural  fruit  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

As  a  collateral  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  position,  it 
may  fairly  be  urged  that  those  races  and  peoples  whose 
members  attempt  (though  only  partially)  to  guide  their 
lives  by  His  direct  teachings,  and  who,  however  imper- 
fectly, seek,  or  profess  to  seek,  to  model  themselves  on 
Him,  are  those  who  have  most  developed  free  institutions. 

The  opposition  in  the  past  of  the  nominal  expression  of 


468  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

Christianity — the  Church — to  Science  is  indeed  on«e  of  the 
apparent  objections  to  this  system  which  has  had  most 
weight. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  a  false  theory  of  inspiration 
and  a  false  interpretation  of  the  scriptures,  together  with 
the  spirit  of  bigotry,  have  thrown  the  religious  bodies  often 
in  contest  with  science.  But  the  teachings  of  the  Master 
are  not  responsible  for  this.  There  is  nothing  in  them 
which  is  opposed  to  the  freest  investigation  and  most 
thorough  research.  On  the  other  hand,  the  humility  and 
love  of  truth  taught  by  Him,  are  favourable  to  the  pur- 
suit of  truth  and  would  tend  to  make  the  scholar  more 
thorough  and  earnest. 

The  faith  in  Supernaturalism  cannot  be  urged  as  op- 
posed to  Science,  for  the  believer  holds  also  to  a  system 
of  laws  in  a  sphere  higher  than  that  which  science  searches 
out,  and  to  him  also  there  is  a  "continuity"  in  the  uni- 
verse. The  victories  of  science  are  won  in  a  domain  which 
faith  scarcely  touches  ;  and  from  all  that  appears,  a  most 
devout  believer  in  the  supernatural  might  lead  the  re- 
searches of  modern  investigation  in  nature.  To  him  in- 
deed there  would  be  an  intelligent  Power  behind  nature, 
and  a  light  shining  through  the  mystery  of  the  universe, 
but  all  known  laws  of  existence  could  be  as  closely  and 
impartially  followed  out,  as  by  the  most  sceptical  ma-^ 
terialist.  Many  of  the  great  investigators  of  nature  in  all 
ages  have  been  religious. 

An  objection  of  greater  weight  to  the  Christian  system 
is  that,  if  of  supernatural  origin,  or  if  the  ultimate  system 
of  morals,  it  has  been  extraordinarily  slow  in  imbuing  the 
world  with  its  principles  and  that  some  of  the  most  terri- 
ble evils  of  society  still  survive.  The  reply  has  often  been 
made  to  this  objection,  and  to  the  philosophic  mind  would 
«eem    a  not   unsatisfactory   one,   that   with   regard    to   all 


THE  SLOW  INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY.      469 

agencies,  whether  physical  or  moral,  shaping  this  world, 
long  periods  of  time  seem  necessary.  Whatever  be  the 
theory  of  the  universe,  immense  time  appears  indispen- 
sible  for  the  working  out  of  any  of  the  great  forces.  It 
is  no  more  inconsistent  with  supernatural  Power  to  be 
during  a  thousand  centuries  slowly  remoulding  through 
natural  influences  the  moral  world,  than  during  a  like 
period  to  be  gradually  remoulding  matter  under  the  laws 
of  Evolution,  or  to  be  laying  the  foundation  for  future 
kingdoms  of  life  during  uncounted  centuries  under  the 
natural  forces. 

All  that  we  need  to  show  is,  that  Jiere  is  a  moral  Force 
producing  certain  definite  though  small  residts  during  a 
certain  period  of  time  ;  and  of  a  nature  adapted  to  produce 
indefinite  similar  residts  in  unlimited  time.  If  these  two 
premises  be  allowed  of  the  Christian  system,  we  can  pro- 
nounce it  safely  the  ultimate  system  of  morals. 

The  first  of  these,  it  has  been  the  object  of  this  volume 
to  demonstrate.  We  have  endeavoured  to  show  what  in 
a  few  centuries  the  Christian  System  has  brought  about ; 
what  changes  it,  in  harmony  with  other  influences  working 
secondarily,  has  effected,  what  sufierings  mitigated,  what 
evils  removed,  what  abuses  reformed,  and  what  new  bonds 
of  sympathy  and  humanity  it  has  joined. 

Before  showing  what  it  is  adapted  to  accomplish,  we 
must  point  incidentally  to  certain  obstacles,  outside  of 
itself,  which  have  obstructed  its  progress  in  the  past. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  this  Religion  and  morality 
have  never  acquired  a  full  control  over  mankind.  The 
great  historical  blunder  of  the  Church — the  early  union 
with  the  State — lessened  and  crippled  the  moral  influence 
of  Christianity  in  Europe.  The  too  speedy  and  superficial 
convev-,ion  of  the  masses  in  Europe,  left  a  wide-spread 
paganization,  especially  of  the  peasantry.     The  influence 


470  GESTA    CHRISTl. 

of  state  churches,  of  wealthy  hierarchies,  of  political 
priests,  and  all  the  corruption  and  bigotry  of  the  Church 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  tended  to  counteract  the  true  working 
of  the  Faith.  No  doubt  in  modern  days,  the  worldliness 
of  the  Church  has  equally  interfered  with  the  legitimate 
influence  of  this  system.  Even  among  its  followers,  the 
effects  and  inherited  tendencies  of  ages  of  barbarism  and 
unrestrained  selfishness,  still  survive  in  mental  habits  and 
social  customs.  War  is  a  relic  of  unchristian  times,  and 
is  in  many  forms  utterly  opposed  to  the  Religion  of  Love. 
Yet  the  power  of  this  kind  of  co-operation  and  the  evil 
passions  engendered  affect  the  minds  of  all  believers,  and 
but  {q^w  have  escaped  as  yet  its  influences. 

So  as  regards  the  more  selfish  competition  of  trade,  the 
teachings  of  Christ,  even  with  His  nominal  followers,  have 
reached  but  a  few.  Then,  when  we  consider  the  relations 
of  bodies  of  men,  we  find  that  in  all  governmental  connec- 
tions, these  instructions  have  had  but  the  feeblest  influence, 
and  that  this  century  only  has  seen  the  first  important 
application  of  Christian  principles  to  international  rela- 
tions. We  may  therefore  fairly  say  that  Christianity  has 
merely  begun  its  workings  in  the  world,  and  many  hundred 
centuries  must  pass  before  it  will  show  any  important  part 
of  its  true  influence. 

Evolution. — But  what  Christianity  is  adapted  to  effect 
may  be  best  seen  from  examining  the  laws  which  seem  to 
govern  all  human  development.  In  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, that  individual  or  that  race  of  men  is  the  most  sure  to 
survive,  which  is  the  most  fitted  for  its  conditions,  physical, 
mental,  and  moral.  And  as  every  faculty  and  power  de- 
velops, and  the  relations  of  human  beings  with  one  another 
become  more  complicated,  that  race  will  lead  the  world 
which  is  most  ii  harmony  with  the  most  advanced  and  re- 


EVOLUTION  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  471 

fined  conditions.  The  elements  which  especially  govern  the 
relations  of  men  to  one  another  in  their  highest  associa- 
tions, are  sympathy,  justice,  the  love  of  others'  happiness, 
the  control  of  selfish  tendencies,  and  the  aiming  at  uni- 
versal good. 

In  lower  relations,  we  see  in  the  history  of  the  past,  that 
such  races  as  violated  habitually  ordinary  morals,  and 
were  greedy  of  wealth,  indifferent  to  injustice,  tyrannical 
to  the  weak,  corrupted  by  pleasure,  weakened  by  unnatural 
passions,  oppressive  to  the  masses,  or  eager  for  mere 
conquest  and  unjust  glory,  finally  were  overthrown  and 
perished.  Their  victors  or  survivors  who  took  their  places 
at  first  were  perhaps  little  better  than  their  predecessors, 
but  they  had  gained  the  victory  by  some  moral  advantage, 
and  this,  acted  upon  by  favouring  circumstances,  trans- 
mitted and  increased  by  heredity,  continually  advanced 
these  races. 

The  races  with  lower  moral  development  went  to  the 
wall,  and  those  with  higher,  grew  in  moral  power.  Still 
this  was  not  a  steady  moral  advance,  as  many  of  the  cir- 
cumstances were  not  favourable  to  it  ;  and  temporarily  a 
victory  in  the  struggle  for  existence  was  often  given  to 
a  race  lower  in  the  moral  scale.  But  on  the  whole  and 
in  a  long  period,  vice  weakens  the  physical  power  of  a 
nation  ;  injustice  raises  up  enemies  internal  or  external ; 
excessive  luxury  saps  vigour  ;  selfishness  repels  allies  ;  and 
in  one  form  or  other,  a  low  moral  standard  as  compared 
with  the  prevailing,  weakens  its  resisting  power,  and  causes 
it  finally  to  succumb.  As  we  rise  to  higher  relations,  we 
can  see  that  as  man  develops  and  society  advances,  the 
races  in  which  there  is  the  highest  development  of  sym- 
pathy, of  benevolence,  of  sexual  purity,  of  truth  and 
justice,  will  tend  to  be  the  strongest  in  body,  the  most 
closely  united,  the   most    prosperous,   the   most  free,  the 


47a  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

most  influential  on  inferior  races,  and  tht  most  powerful 
as  attracting  other  members  to  themselves.  All  the  des- 
tructive influences  of  the  world  will  be  less  operative  on 
them.  The  death-rate  of  such  a  race  will  tend  to  be  the 
lowest  possible  ;  the  physical  vigour  the  highest ;  the 
inequalities  of  fortune  will  be  the  most  compensated  for  ; 
the  trade  and  intercourse  with  all  other  nations  the  freest ; 
the  laws  and  social  customs  will  the  most  approach  perfect 
justice  and  humanity ;  all  the  resources  and  abilities  of  the 
most  favoured  members  will  be  habitually  used  for  the 
most  unfortunate,  but  only  so  far  as  to  strengthen  them. 
The  power  of  such  a  race  will  far  transcend  anything 
hitherto  known,  for  each  member  is  permitted  the  utmost 
possible  development  of  all  his  faculties,  and  vigour  of 
intellect  is  almost  sure  to  accompany  great  moral  advance. 

In  the  struggle  for  existence,  a  perfected  race  like  this 
will  be  as  much  beyond  the  races  which  history  has  known, 
as  the  Aryan  races  now  are  beyond  the  African.  It  will 
tend  to  supplant  them.  It  will  win  the  fruits  of  nature 
first.  It  will  absorb  from  them.  It  will  lesist  destructive 
influences  better.  If  driven  to  physical  contest,  it  would 
conquer  them  ;  it  would  inevitably  lead  all  other  races. 
Though  opposed  to  war,  and  living  habitually  in  bene- 
volence, such  a  people  in  the  defence  of  rights  would  be 
almost  irresistible.  But  its  final  triumphs  would  be  like 
those  of  civilization — gentle,  profound,  and  full  of  blessing 
to  all  others.  Men  would  follow  such  a  nation,  as  they 
have  followed  prophets  and  saviours.  It  would  be  the 
centre  of  the  higher  life  of  the  world. 

The  currents  of  Evolution  plainly  set  towards  such  an 
end.  The  struggle  for  existence,  heredity,  and  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  must  give  the  final  triumph  in  the  life  of 
men  to  the  races  of  high  morality  ;  to  such  qualities  as 
sympathy,  unselfish  benevolence,  purity,  justice  and  truth 


EVOLUTION  AND  BENEVOLENCE.  473 

These  are  alone  suited  to  the  highest  development  of 
society,  and  the  most  complete  and  perfect  working 
of  each  individual  with  every  other.  Selfishness,  vice, 
injustice,  violence,  hate,  and  lust,  tend  to  weaken,  to 
destroy,  to  disorganize,  and  finally  to  cause  defeat  in  the 
struggle. 

A  profound  and  acute  writer,  a  Positivist,  Mr.  Fiske, 
has  somewhere  said  that  the  drift  of  society  under  Natural 
Selection  and  the  other  forces  of  Evolution  is  "  towards 
weakening  the  power  of  selfishness,  and  strengthening  the 
power  of  sympathy." 

If  it  be  objected  that  this  theory  leaves  out  of  view  one 
of  the  great  and  solemn  facts  of  life — the  drift  toward 
evil  or  inherited  and  accumulated  tendency  to  depravity — ■ 
the  reply  is  that  with  the  race  we  have  imagined.  Inherit- 
ance may  eventually  be  turned  toward  good.  After 
hundreds  of  generations  of  human  beings,  guided  by  such 
principles  as  we  have  indicated,  and  inspired  by  the 
Divine  Spirit,  the  immense  power  of  heredity  reduplicating 
any  tendencies  physical  or  moral  would  be  accumulated 
in  favour  of  benevolence,  purity  and  truth,  and  would  open 
the  mind  to  spiritual  and  moral  truth  even  from  infancy. 
No  human  knowledge  can  measuie  the  results  when  at 
length  under  Divine  influences  that  mysterious  tendency 
towards  evil  which  has  so  tormented  earnest  thinkers — 
that  principle  of  heredity,  reduplicating  in  its  power  at 
every  new  generation — shall  be  turned  towards  good,  and 
the  first  unconscious  impulses  be  in  the  direction  of 
unselfishness  and  of  religion.  Then  the  "  gemmules  " 
which  may  have  descended  for  a  thousand  generations, 
whether  containing  physical  forces  or  influencing  moral 
tendencies,  will  be  preponderatingly  those  which  make 
the  body  pure  and  self- controlled,  and  draw  the  soul 
towards  goodness  and  God. 


474  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

It  need  not  be  said  that  Christianity  is  adapted  to  form 
such  a  race  as  we  have  described  above.  Its  tendency  is 
to  remove  all  the  destructive  agencies.  It  teaches  the 
brotherhood  of  man  and  the  priceless  value  of  each  human 
being,  and  therefore  undermines  serfdom  and  slavery, 
which  have  overthrown  so  many  commonwealths,  and 
steadily  elevates  the  masses  who  make  the  strength  of  a 
state.  It  urges  universal  love  and  justice,  and  therefore 
leads  men  to  aid  one  another  in  every  possible  way,  to 
assist  by  wise  charity,  to  remove  unjust  burdens,  to  take 
off  the  trammels  on  trade  and  intercourse,  to  pass  just 
laws  and  abolish  ancient  abuses.  Under  its  teachings  of 
"  doing  to  others  as  we  would  have  others  do  to  us,"  and 
"loving  our  neighbours  as  ourselves,"  sympathy  and  un- 
selfish benevolence  are  the  controlling  elements  in  this 
higher  condition.  It  opposes  and  must  finally  do  away 
with  War — perhaps  the  greatest  curse  on  mankind.  In 
defending  marriage  and  presenting  the  highest  ideal  of 
purity  as  a  religious  obligation,  it  strengthens  physical 
power  and  diminishes  the  great  offence  of  women,  and 
will  at  length  remove  it.  It  binds  families  together,  and 
tends  thus  to  preserve  the  greatest  physical  vigour.  It 
teaches  temperance  and  moderation,  and  by  religious 
motives  resists  the  fatal  appetite  of  modern  days — that 
for  extreme  alcoholic  stimulus. 

In  presenting  the  dignity  of  man  it  tends  to  root  out  the 
degraded  character  of  Pauperism  ;  and  by  teaching  that 
benevolence  must  ever  regard  the  highest  welfare  of  the 
recipient,  it  prevents  indiscriminate  alms-giving.  Trade 
under  it  will  be  governed  by  honest  and  unselfish  principles. 
Under  the  guiding  words  of  the  Master,  a  new  principle 
of  the  distribution  of  wealth  will  prevail  in  the  completed 
society  of  the  future.  Men  will  hold  riches  for  all.  1  he 
surplus  beyond  reasonable  wants  and  desires  will  be  con- 


FUTURE    UNDER   CHRISTIANITY.  475 

tinually  distributed  in  means  of  education,  of  wise  charity, 
and  of  public  improvement.  Possibly  the  laws  themselvea 
will  forbid  accumulation  beyond  a  fixed  amount ;  or  all  such 
matters  will  be  left  to  a  Christianized  public  opinion.  Vice, 
lust,  violence,  cruelty,  neglect  of  offspring,  robbery,  thievery 
and  all  the  practices  which  disorganize  a  community  will  be 
resisted  by  the  most  powerful  motives  which  can  work  on 
the  human  mind.  That  which  especially  ensures  the  future 
of  a  race — its  physical  and  moral  cart  for  its  young — is 
especially  encouraged  by  this  Faith.  Under  it  sympathy 
and  unselfish  benevolence  are  stimulated  to  their  utmost. 
It  offers  all  the  conditions  which  Evolution  requires  to  form 
the  perfect  race  or  society. 

But  it  does  more  than  present  a  system  of  ultimate 
morals.  It  throws  in  a  Force  which  Evolution  does  not 
reckon  upon,  and  which  hastens  on  all  the  currents  for  good, 
working  in  human  life.  It  offers  the  love  for  an  unequalled 
character,  for  a  divine  Person  who  embodies  all  abstract 
morality  :  it  throws  about  Him  and  His  teachings,  the  halo 
and  mystery  of  a  Religion  :  it  presents  to  the  individual 
struggling  for  a  higher  morality,  hopes  and  fears  which  take 
Iiold  of  all  that  is  grand  and  awful  in  the  universe.  It  even 
makes  morality  only  the  blossom  and  fruit  of  the  love  it 
would  implant  for  this  transcendent  Being  and  of  the  faith 
in  unseen  and  eternal  realities.  In  loving  the  highest  ex- 
cellence as  personified  in  CHRIST,  the  man  unconsciously 
loves  the  happiness  of  all  created  beings,  and  is  planted  in 
the  highest  morality. 

We  have  thus  attempted  to  show  in  this  volume,  what 
improvements  in  human  condition,  and  what  assistance  to 
humane  and  moral  progress  have  originated  in  a  compara- 
tively brief  period,  from  Christianity.  We  have  inferred 
from    these   changes  which   it   has   caused  during   a   few 


476  GESTA    CHRIST!. 

centuries,  what  it  will  probably  bring  about  in  a  very  loi  g 
period.  From  its  own  nature  too,  we  have  reasoned  that 
Christianity  is  adapted  to  produce  a  perfect  system  of 
human  society.  Nothing  better  has  been  or  can  be  con- 
ceived by  the  miad  of  man,  to  make  man  better  or  happier. 
Is  it  not  then  reasonable  to  infer  that  the  Christian  Religion 
is  "the  absolute  and  universal  Religion  :  "  that  its  Founder, 
Jesus  the  Christ,  was  substantially  what  he  claimed  to  be, 
and  that  His  revelation  of  the  future  life  may  be  received 
with  the  same  confidence,  as  His  instruction  about  the 
present. 

A  Being  who  can  lead  for  all  future  ages,  the  moral  and 
humane  progress  of  humanity,  may  well  claim  a  respect 
for  His  words  which  no  other  being  can  demand.  The 
"  Son  of  man  "  may  well  be  the  "  Son  of  God  : "  the  Gesta 
Christi  may  become  the  Gesta  Dei,  and  He  r^^veal  not 
only  Life  but  Immortality  to  man 


SUPPLEMENTARY   CHAPTER. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON   ART  IN 
THE   MIDDLE   AGES. 

Some  sceptical  writers  of  distinction  and  even  of  con- 
siderable impartiality  have  spoken  with  depreciation  or 
contempt  of  the  share  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the 
aesthetic  history  of  the  race;  and  the  position  of  the 
early  Iconoclasts  destroying  statues  and  images,  or  of 
the  Catholic  Savonarola  burning  works  of  art,  or  of  the 
English  Puritans  defacing  the  Episcopal  churches,  has 
been  supposed  to  represent  that  of  Christians  generally 
towards  Art.^ 

The  "Religion  of  Sorrow"  has  not  been  thought  fa- 
vorable to  those  arts  which  minister  to  pleasure,  and  the 
Faith  which  teaches  self-denial,  the  crowning  event  of 
whose  history  is  an  ignominious  and  painful  death,  could 
not,  it  was  believed,  look  with  sympathy  on  whatever 
belongs  to  the  fulness  and  luxury  of  life.  But  in  this 
theoretical  view  of  Christianity  were  left  out  of  sight  its 
ideal  and  dramatic  elements.  Its  story  from  the  manger- 
birth  to  the  death  on  the  cross  is  full  of  poetry  and  scenic 
effect.     Childhood  and  womanhood  are  both  glorified  in 

-  Renan  however  takes  a  broader  view:  "Jamais  le  probldme  de  I'art  reli- 
i;loux  n'a  etc  plus  completement  resolu  qu'au  moyen  ^ge,  en  ce  sens  qu'3 
aiicune  autre  epoque  de  I'histoire  de  I'humanite  la  religion  ne  s'est  traduita 
au  dehors  par  un  ensemble  de  formes  plus  imposantes,  plus  rapproch^s  &  la 
Divinity.     (Nmtvelles  £tudes.) 

477 


478  GESTA    CHRIST/. 

its  narrative.  Its  truths  take  hold  of  the  noblest  aspira* 
tions  and  most  heroic  purposes  in  this  life;  and  bear  on 
the  grandest  possibilities  of  the  soul  in  the  life  to  come. 
Whatever  is  sweet  in  humble  affection,  whatever  is  beau- 
tiful in  purity,  or  heroic  in  sacrifice,  or  elevated  in  aspira- 
tion, or  unquenchable  in  hope,  can  be  painted  on  the 
canvas  or  chiseled  in  marble  or  built  in  imperishable 
stone  by  him  who  is  inspired  with  its  teachings. 

In  point  of  fact  the  two  most  striking  fruits  of  the 
feeling  for  beauty  and  harmony  known  to  man  since  the 
days  of  the  highest  Greek  Art,  have  come  directly  from 
the  religious  sentiment  in  Christianity  acting  upon  the 
temperament  of  the  Teutonic  and  Romanic  peoples. 
The  power  of  Christ  over  the  human  mind  shows  itself 
in  different  forms  in  different  ages.  His  influence  on  the 
imagination,  the  dramatic  faculty,  and  the  sense  of 
beauty  may  not  perhaps  be  the  highest  form,  but  it 
is    one. 

There  was  a  certain  portion  of  the  Middle  Ages,  a 
century  or  century  and  a  half,  from  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  to  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century 
— the  most  brilliant  in  human  annals — when  this  power 
was  exerted  on  the  European  mind  as  it  never  had  been 
before  and  doubtless  never  will  be  again  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  race. 

The  great  religious  and  aesthetic  conception  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was  undoubtedly  that  of  the  holy  Madonna. 
The  Madonna,  so  far  as  we  can  recall,  has  no  exact  coun- 
terpart in  Classic  or  Pagan  Art.  It  is  the  conception  of 
the  glorified  woman,  whose  passions,  affections  and  whole 
nature  have  been  purified  and  beatified  by  suffering  and 
devotion,  by  the  pangs  of  earth  and  the  joys  of  heaven. 
It  is  the  wife  unstained  by  sin,  hearing  in  sweet  humility 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  479 

and  unspeakable  joy  from  the  Infinite  Spirit,  that  she  is 
to  bear  in  her  bosom  the  Hope  of  the  human  race;  it  is 
the  mother  first  looking  upon  the  face  of  the  blessed 
Infant,  who  is  to  be  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth;  it  is  the 
beatified  woman,  rising  on  the  rose-tinged  clouds,  every 
feature  of  the  angelic  face  moulded  with  awe  and  devo- 
tion and  the  sense  of  union  with  God,  holding  the  divine 
Child,  whose  deep  and  solemn  eyes  seem  to  predict  the 
career  of  suffering,  shame  and  agony  before  Him;  or  it  is 
the  mother  bereft,  bending  in  pain  over  the  lifeless  form 
of  the  beloved  Son,  but  with  eyes  that  look  through  tears 
to  the  triumph  of  His  spirit  on  the  earth,  and  to  the  glad 
re-union  in  Heaven. 

In  all  the  best  schools  the  Madonna  is  the  highest 
Christian  conception  of  woman,  of  woman  indeed  ex- 
alted and  beautified  by  being  chosen  to  be  the  mother  of 
the  Lord;  but  woman  softened  by  suffering,  elevated  by 
consciousness  of  divine  union,  bearing  the  burdens  of 
humanity  as  her  Son  had  done,  purified  of  human  dross 
by  love,  sharing  human  weakness  but  made  almost  super- 
human "in  having  been  permitted  to  bring  forth  into  the 
world  the  Holy  One. 

It  is  true  that  this  pure  and  elevated  conception  of  the 
mother  of  Christ  ran  at  length  into  an  extreme,  and  led 
to  a  worship  of  the  human  rather  than  the  divine.  But 
let  any  one  stand  before  such  a  picture  as  Raphael's  Sis- 
tine  Madonna,  and  ask  himself  whether  Art  could  give 
purer  or  higher  or  more  religious  conceptions.  As  he 
gazes  on  that  graceful  and  noble  figure  with  floating 
drapery,  "rising  on  the  empurpled  cloud,"  the  sweet 
and  solemn  face  bearing  on  it  the  shadow  of  life's  sor- 
row and  of  future  pain,  the  features  so  pure  and  beau- 
tiful that  he  involuntarily  says  to  himself,  "  such  and 
not  more  beautiful  be  the  angel  faces  that  shall  meet 


48o  GESTA   CHRIST/. 

me  in  the  blessed  life  beyond ! "  and  as  he  feels  the 
wonderful  harmony  of  the  painting,  the  effect  which 
the  very  contrast  of  the  earthly  faces  of  the  Pope  and 
Santa  Barbara  make  to  the  spiritual  Madonna,  and  as 
he  looks  into  the  deep,  earnest  eyes  of  the  Infant 
Christ,  who  seems  gazing  into  the  vistas  of  eternity, 
he  feels  the  full  effect  of  the  highest  religious  thought 
and  dramatic  representation.  He  does  not  worship  the 
Madonna.  He  has  a  conception  of  divine  purity,  of  in- 
finite beauty,  of  the  possibility  of  human  beatification 
and  purifying  in  the  light  of  HiM  who  is  the  soul  of  the 
universe.     He  prays  for  purity.     He  worships  GOD. 

No  temple  or  church  or  religious  emblem  could  pro- 
duce such  a  profound  spiritual  impression  on  the  beholder. 
No  other  religion,  no  Classic  or  Oriental  Art  has  given 
to  the  world  such  an  ideal  of  woman.  We  know  the 
elevated  and  heroic  ideal  of  the  Greeks;  the  stately  and 
pure  conception  of  the  Romans;  but  no  statue  in  ancient 
Art  thus  speaks  of  almost  superhuman  sorrow,  of  purity 
and  affection,  of  intense  aspiration  for  goodness,  of  the 
love  which  beareth  all  things  and  of  adoration  of  the 
divine.  The  Madonna  of  the  purest  schools  of  the  Middle 
Ages  is  a  gift  of  Christianity,  working  on  the  Teutonic 
and  Italian  temperament,  to  the  treasures  of  beauty  of 
the  human  race. 

From  causes  which  we  need  not  here  investigate,  the 
century  beginning  with  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  was 
conspicuous  for  a  new  life  in  Christian  thought  and  feel- 
i!ig,  and  this  movement,  though  not  reaching  every 
branch  of  human  society,  yet  acted  especially  on  the 
sense  of  beauty  and  the  dramatic  power  in  painting  and 
architecture.  The  story  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles, 
the  doctrines  of  His  Faith  as  relating  to  the  unseen 
and    the    future    life,    and    many  of  His    highest    moral 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  481 

truths,  gained  a  new  power  and  freshness.  In  some 
directions  men  beHeved  as  they  had  not  before  since 
the  early  Christian  ages. 

The  ItaHan  monks  preached  with  great  power  to  vast 
audiences  the  eternal  truths  of  penitence  and  duty  to 
God.  Men  were  aroused  in  every  direction  to  their  duties. 
The  sense  of  sin  and  of  the  higher  obHgations  was  in- 
tensely stimulated.  Italian  monks,'  like  Sartiano,  Capis- 
trano,  Da  Lecce,  Bernardino  of  Sienna,  and  others,  held 
large  assemblies  in  rapt  attention,  as  they  spoke  with 
thrilling  eloquence  of  sin  and  repentance.  Savonarola 
thundered  at  the  conscience  of  the  masses  in  his  beloved 
Florence,  scourged  the  vices  of  the  Church  and  the  civil 
rulers,  and  pleaded  for  the  purest  religious  feelings  in  Art. 
Luther  preached  to  increasing  multitudes  the  highest 
truths  of  Christianity,  and  drove  home  to  the  conscience 
of  men  the  sense  of  sin,  the  need  of  a  Divine  Redeemer 
and  the  hypocrisy  of  outward  ceremonial  with  the  heart 
corrupt  and  selfish.  Yet  with  all  this  went  on  a  corrup- 
tion in  the  Church  and  in  social  life,  which  showed  how 
partial  and  incomplete  was  the  work  of  the  Faith  once 
preached  in  Judea. 

Still  its  action  on  the  sense  of  beauty  was  most  strik- 
ing. A  century  and  a  half  previous  to  this  period,  Cim- 
abue  (1302),  in  Florence,  had  painted  a  Madonna  with 
such  freshness  of  religious  feeling  that  Vasari  relates  it 
was  carried  to  church  in  a  solemn  procession,  followed 
by  the  whole  population,  with  such  rejoicing  that  the 
quarter  is  still  called  Borgo  Allegri  (Joyful  Quarter).  His 
illustrious  pupil,  Giotto  (about  1300),  has  been  called 
"  the  father  of  Christian  Art,"  and  the  influence  of  the 
Latter  was  felt  for  centuries  in  Italy  in  the  expression 
^f  religious  emotion.     Of  this  school  Vasari  says:  "We 

J  Burckhardt,  Renaissance  in  Italv,  ii.  264, 


♦§3  GESTA   CHRIST/. 

painters  occupy  ourselves  entirely  in  tracing  saints  on 
the  walls  and  on  the  altars,  in  order  that  by  this  means 
men,  to  the  great  despite  of  the  demons,  may  be  better 
and  more  devout."' 

Of  Giotto,  Vasari  declares  that  "  he  was  no  less  re- 
markable as  a  Christian  than  as  a  painter."'^  Religious 
Art  had  been  encouraged  by  popes  and  synods.  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great  (1073)  had  proclaimed:  "Wherefore 
let  pictures  be  employed  in  the  churches,  that  those  who 
do  not  understand  letters  may  at  least  be  able  to  read  on 
the  walls  what  they  do  not  read  in  books"  (Ep.  105). 
The  Synod  of  Arras  (1205)  decreed  that  what  the  illit- 
erate cannot  behold  in  the  Scripture,  that  they  should 
contemplate  in  the  features  of  pictorial  art.^  The  paint- 
ing (miniature)  in  manuscripts  and  on  vellum  was  carried 
to  a  high  degree  of  perfection  in  the  convents,  and  in 
France  religious  art  was  beautified  in  the  twelfth  century 
by  the  use  of  painting  on  glass — a  discovery,  probably,  of 
Byzantine  origin.  A  cure  in  Troyes  painted  three  win- 
dows of  a  church  to  serve  as  catechism  and  instruction 
to  the  people  (pour  servir  de  catechisme  et  d'instruc- 
tion  au  peuple). 

But  the  greatest  impulse  to  the  progress  of  Christian 
art  was  given  by  the  voluntary  associations  of  earnest- 
minded  painters,  sculptors,  and  masons  through  Northern 
Italy.  These  workingmen  and  artists  were  filled  with  re- 
ligious emotions.  Vasari  relates  that  one  fraternity  of 
pointers  (1350)  held  periodical  meetings  to  render  praise 
and  thanks  to  God  (per  rendere  lode  et  grazie  a  Dio). 
Rio  says,  "The  studio  of  the  painter  became  an  orato- 

*  Piu  divoti  et  migliori. 

s  Non  meno  buon  Christiano  che  eccellente   pittore. 

3  Illiterati  quod  per  Scripturam  non  possunt  intuen  hoc  per  quaedam 
pi'-turae  lineamenta  contemplantur. 


mPLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  483 

rio."  The  Florentine  associations  are  said  to  have  laid 
great  stress  on  personal  piety  and  minute  acts  of  de- 
votion; the  Siennese  insisted  more  on  the  religious 
vocation  of  art;  all  were  fraternities  for  mutual  moral 
and  religious  edification.  The  painters  of  Sienna  open- 
ly declared  that  "we,  by  the  grace  of  God,  make  man- 
ifest to  rude  and  ignorant  men  the  miraculous  events 
operated  by  virtue  of  and  in  confirmation  of  our  holy 
faith." 

A  wonderful  personality  had  lived  and  acted  in  a  lit- 
tle village  of  Umbria,  Assisi,  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
He  had  been  truly  inspired  with  love  of  man  and  of  God. 
St.  Francis'  story  has  received  the  usual  setting  of  leg- 
endry,  but  there  was  beneath  it  a  spark  of  the  divine 
fire.  This  has  kindled  not  only  the  monks  and  preachers 
of  Italy,  but  affected  successive  generations  of  artists  and 
sculptors.  He  who  most  felt  this  inspiration  has  become 
the  great  representative  of  Christian  art  in  all  centu- 
ries— Fra  Angelico  of  Fiesole  (1387-1455).  Vasari  says 
of  him  that  he  never  could  have  reached  such  heights  of 
art  but  for  his  devoted  and  holy  life  (uomo  di  santissima 
vita).  In  his  funeral  oration  he  declares:  "Some  say 
that  Fra  Giovanni  never  took  up  pencil  without  first 
having  recourse  to  prayer.  Whenever  he  painted  a  cru- 
cifixion the  tears  streamed  down  his  cheeks,  and  in  the 
countenance  and  attitudes  of  his  figures  it  is  easy  to  per- 
ceive the  goodness  of  his  soul  and  his  great  love  of  the 
Christian  religion."  Again,  "He  shunned  altogether  the 
commerce  of  the  world,  and,  living  in  holiness  and  in 
purity,  was  as  loving  towards  the  poor  on  earth  as  I 
think  his  soul  must  be  now  in  heaven.  He  worked 
incessantly  at  his  art,  nor  would  he  paint  other  than 
sacred  subjects.  He  might  have  been  rich,  but  cared 
qot  to  be  so,  saying  that   true  riches  consisted  rather 


484  GESTA   CHRIST/. 

in  being  content  with  little.  He  niii^ht  have  ruled  over 
many,  but  he  willed  it  not.  .  .  .  Dignity  and  au- 
thority were  within  his  grasp,  but  he  disregarded  them, 
saying  that  he  sought  no  other  advancement  than  to 
escape  Hell  and  draw  nigh  to  Paradise.  He  was  most 
meek  and  temperate,  and  by  a  chaste  life  loosened  him- 
self from  the  snares  of  the  world,  ofttimes  saying  that 
the  student  of  painting  hath  need  of  quiet  and  to  live 
without  anxiety,  and  that  the  dealer  in  the  things  of 
Christ  ought  to  dwell  perpetually  with  Christ."  He 
never  yielded  to  the  sensual  tastes  of  the  age,  or  to 
the  demands  of  the  great  patrons  of  his  art,  the  Medici, 
who  ordered  the  free  and  licentious  nude  subjects  of 
antiquity.  After  spiritual  communings  he  seized  the 
pencil,  and  believed  his  pictures  to  be  inspirations.  "As 
he  was  devout  in  heart,  so  he  formed  his  figures  full 
of  devotion."  ^  Of  these  lovely  creations,  faces  filled 
with  an  unearthly  sweetness,  reflecting  the  peace  which 
passeth  understanding,  lit  with  a  light  not  of  earth, 
humble  as  in  the  presence  of  the  Ineffable  One,  har- 
monious and  beautiful  as  if  Heaven  shone  around  them, 
all  succeeding  ages  have  agreed  with  the  historian  that 
"  the  spirits  of  the  blessed  in  heaven  could  scarcely  be 
otherwise."  ^ 

The  epitaph  of  the  saintly  artist  expresses  his  spirit, 
and  that  of  the  highest  Christian  Art  of  the  fifteenth 
century:  "To  me  be  it  no  glory  that  I  was  as  a  sec- 
ond Apclles;  but  that  all  my  gains  I  laid  at  thy  feet, 
oh  Jesu ! "  ' 


'  Sicut  ipse  erat  devotus  in  corde,  ita  et  figuras  pingebat  devotione  plenas. 
'  Spirit!  beati  non  possimo  essere  in  cielo  altrimente. 

3  Non  niihi  sit  laudi  quod  eram  velust  alter  Apelles;  sed  quod  lucra  tuia 
omnia,  Christe,  dabam  ! — Vasari. 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  485 

A  like  spirit  is  seen  in  the  Bologna  School.  Lippo 
Dalmasio  (at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century)  is  re- 
lated never  to  have  commenced  painting  without  a  severe 
fast  the  evening  before  and  partaking  of  the  sacraments 
during  the  same  day,  that  his  imagination  might  be 
purified;  so  that  Guido  said  of  him,  it  was  impossible  for 
any  modern  artist — no  matter  with  what  talent  or  study 
— to  unite  so  much  holiness,  modesty  and  piety  in  one 
figure.^  In  his  later  life,  he  never  painted  for  money  but 
only  to  give  expression  to  devotional  feelings — he  him- 
self being  supported  by  his  convent. 

Savonarola. — This  remarkable  reformer  and  preacher 
of  the  fifteenth  century  had  a  marked  and  extraordinary 
influence  on  the  Christian  Art  of  North  Italy,  and  on  the 
artists  personally.  He  especially  denounced  the  pagan 
and  licentious  influences  which  were  degrading  painting 
and  sculpture  in  his  native  land.  "  Ye  make  the  Virgin 
appear  like  a  prostitute!"*  he  said  in  one  of  his  impas- 
sioned addresses  to  those  who  were  corrupting  Art.  The 
decline  of  Art,  he  declared  was  owing  to  the  decline  of 
Religion.  "Your  ideas  are  stamped  with  the  grossest 
materialism.  ...  It  is  in  something  beyond  the  visible 
that  we  must  seek  for  the  essence  of  true  Beauty.  The 
more  nearly  the  creature  participates  in  and  approaches 
to  the  Divine  Beauty,  the  more  beautiful  it  is,  because 
the  beauty  of  the  body  depends  in  great  measure  on  the 
beauty  of  the  soul."  This  idea  he  repeats  in  innumerable 
forms.  "Imagine  what  must  have  been  the  beauty  of 
the  Virgin  who  possessed  such  sanctity — sanctity  that 
shone  from  all  her  features.  Imagine  how  beautiful  was 
Christ  who  was  God  and  man  !  "     St.  Ambrose  had  said 

'   Rio,  De  la  Poesie  Chretienne,  etc.,  p.  185. 

*  Voi  fate  parer  Vergine  Maria  vestita  come  una  meretnce. 


486  GESTA   CHRIST/. 

before  of  the  Virgin  that  the  appea)  ance  of  the  body  was 
an  image  of  the  beauty  of  the  soul.^ 

Savonarola  adds,  "  It  is  related  that  at  the  sight  of 
the  Virgin,  at  the  sight  of  her  great  beaut) ,  all  men  re- 
mained stupefied;  but  such  was  the  sanctity  that  shone 
in  her  that  she  never  inspired  an  evil  thought;  every  one 
felt  himself  inspired  with  respect  for  her.  ...  If  natural 
virtues  like  prudence,  justice,  force  and  temperance  are 
ornaments  of  the  soul  and  contribute  to  render  it  beauti- 
ful, how  much  more  beauty  ought  to  belong  to  super- 
natural virtues,  such  as  faith,  hope  and  especially  charity. 
Love  God  first,  then  your  neighbor,  and  your  soul  will 
be  beautiful.*  Every  painter  paints  himself;  that  is  to 
say,  he  realizes  his  conceptions.  .  .  .  Carnal  and  de- 
bauched men  have  the  intellect  obscured."'  "Love  is 
like  a  painter.  The  works  of  a  good  painter  charm  men 
so  that  in  contemplating  them  one  remains  in  suspense; 
sometimes  one  is  ravished  in  ecstacy  and  one  forgets  him- 
self This  is  what  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ  does  in  the 
soul.  .  .  .  The  beauty  and  the  charm  of  similar  paint- 
ings take  captive  all  the  forces  of  the  soul,  and  make  it 
despise  riches,  honor  and  all  earthly  goods."* 

These  words  of  the  great  preacher  of  the  Middle  Ages 
show  what  was  the  ideal  of  its  highest  Art  in  picturing 
the  Madonna.  She  was  the  earthly  image  of  the  divine 
beauty. 

Savonarola's  influence  was  deeply  felt  by  Lorenzo  di 
Credi,  early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  especially  by 
Fra  Bartolommeo,  who  has  shown  in  his  works  so  beauti- 
fully the  aspirations  of  Christian  Art.     Ridolfo  Ghirlan* 

Ut  ipsa  corporis  species  simulacrum  fuerit  mentis. 
*  Les  illust.  d'ecrits  de  Savonarola  f  ir  G.  Gruyer,  (Paris,  1879)  p    19. 
3  Sermons  oti  the  Psalms.  *  Ibid. 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  487 

dajo  (about  1500)  and  Michele  di  Ridolfo  transmitted 
still  farther  the  piinciples  of  the  great  Christian  teacher; 
and  the  quaint  and  devout  Botticelli  (1480)  was  so  af- 
fected by  his  words  and  life  that  at  his  death,  as  Vasari 
relates,  he  gave  up  painting  and  resolved  never  to  touch 
pencil  again. 

Michael  Angelo  in  his  grand  and  solemn  themes  is  also 
believed  to  have  shown  the  deep  impression  of  the  great 
reformer's  words.  Savonarola  was  as  a  Hebrew  prophet 
in  a  corrupt  age,  and  the  imagination  of  the  great  artist 
was  equally  filled  with  solemn  visions  and  the  thoughts 
of  the  "Judgment  to  come." 

In  Venice,  Art  kept  its  religious  character  later  than 
in  Florence.  G.  Bellini  (about  1500)  has  expressed  the 
secret  aspirations  of  the  soul  after  repose  in  God,  and 
his  Madonnas,  according  to  Rio,  are  marked  by  the 
mysterious,  profound  expression  of  one  who  looks  for- 
ward to  suffering  and  sacrifice,  but  is  sustained  by 
love. 

Cimo  di  Corregliano  (early  in  the  sixteenth  century) 
is  another  in  the  line  of  religious  painters;  and  of  Car- 
paccio,  so  devout  was  he,  it  is  said,  that  his  fellow- 
citizens  mourned  while  the  blessed  mansions  smiled  at 
his  coming.* 

TJie  Umbrian  School. — In  the  upper  valleys  of  the  Tiber, 
the  religious  influences  which  had  gone  out  from  the  self- 
sacrificing  life  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  and  from  the  pure 
aspirations  and  gentle  soul  of  Fra  Angelico,  were  felt 
for  several  centuries,  and  aided  in  producing  the  most 
perfect  expression  of  religious  feeling,  in  the  art  of  paint- 
ing, yet  known  to  man.  But  in  this  development  the 
art  of  Sienna  had  its  share;  the  tender  and  devotional 

'  Pianto  dai  cittadini,  sorrisa  nelle  beate  stanze  del  cielo. 


*88  GESTA   CIIRISTI. 

Taddec  Bartoli  (141 3)  undoubtedly  influenced  Perugino 
and  Raphael.^  With  tiiese  two  painters — names  im- 
mortal in  the  histo/y  of  Art — may  be  associated  Francia 
(about  1500)  as  reaching  the  utmost  heights  in  picturing 
to  after  ages  the  purest  human  feelings  of  devotion,  awe 
and  rapt  religious  ecstacy,  combined  with  the  highest 
sense  of  harmony  and  beauty. 

Though  the  Renaissance  had  begun  and  the  drift  was 
strong  towards  Paganism  in  painting  and  sculpture, 
Raphael  felt  from  some  sources  the  pure  influences  of 
spiritual  inspiration,  and  has  left  for  all  succeeding  ages 
the  highest  expression  of  religious  Art.  Under  the  work- 
ing of  Christianity,  he  has  contributed  an  ideal  or  con- 
ception of  beauty  and  religious  emotion  which  has  been 
and  is  still  an  element  in  human  progress. 

We  do  not  claim  of  course  that,  even  without  Chris- 
tianity, the  world  would  not  have  developed  its  sentiment 
of  beauty,  or  that  great  artists  would  not  have  arisen  in 
this  wonderful  century  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  bril- 
liant names  that  adorned  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, of  artists  who  derived  most  of  their  inspiration  from 
Pagan  Art,  are  a  proof  of  the  contrary.  We  only  urge 
that  the  Christian  Faith,  which  in  its  essential  objects 
has  little  concern  with  Art,  did  in  this  remarkable  period 
make  these  beautiful  contributions,  as  a  kind  of  side-in- 
fluence to  the  progress  of  mankind — a  gift  which  will 
ilways  aid  the  lovers  of  the  beautiful  towards  the  highest 
ideals. 

The  Cathedral  in  Pointed  Gothic. — About  a  century 
and  a  half  before  the  period  of  which  we  are  speaking — 
early  in  the  thirteenth  century — a  new  expression  of  the 

'  Rumohr,  ii.  311. 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRTSTIANITY  UPON  ART.  48^ 

feelin<^  for  the  beautiful  in  religious  Art  made  itself  known 
in  various  countries  of  Europe.  Its  origin  is  uncertain; 
but  it  first  manifested  itself  in  all  probability  in  Germany/ 
whence  it  had  its  name  of  the  "German  Style"  {Ma7iiera 
TedescJui),  and  under  the  contempt  of  the  Italian  peoples 
for  German  Art,  it  was  early  denominated  the  "Gothic,"* 
and  now  in  its  most  developed  style  receives  the  more 
specific  title  of  the  "  Pointed  Gothic."  Its  appearance 
in  various  and  distant  countries  at  such  near  periods  was 
truly  remarkable;  it  reached  its  highest  and  most  perfect 
development  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  in  the  land 
from  which  it  probably  sprang — Germany. 

The  Pointed  Gothic  Cathedral  has  been  called  "the 
petrifaction  of  the  Christian  Religion."  It  would  seem 
that  various  persons  in  that  century  of  mental  activity, 
inspired  with  awe  and  devotion  under  the  teachings  of 
the  Master,  and  filled  with  the  instinct  of  beauty, 
having  the  intellect  trained  under  the  most  exact  laws 
of  science  then  known,  and  the  rules  of  the  Greek 
and  Saracenic  and  Lombard  architecture,  had  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  erecting  a  temple  which  should  be 
harmonious  to  the  purer  and  grander  ideas  of  worship  in 
the  new  Revelation.  Everything  in  it  should  be  aspir- 
ing. The  thoughts  of  the  worshipper  should  be  called 
upwards  to  the  infinite  and  everlasting.  The  great  aerial 
spaces  within,   the  mystery  of  arch  beyond   arch,   and 

'  See  Hope's  Historical  Essay  on  Architecture,  London,  1840. 

2  Vasari  speaks  of  it  as  "  monstruosi  et  barbari " — and  of  "  maledittione  di 
fabbriche." 

The  origin  of  the  Pointed  Gothic  is  probably  either  from  the  north  of  France 
or  Germany. 

Tlic  Pointed  Arch  itself  has  been  known  from  a  remote  antiquity  even  in  tha 
F'ast,  and  the  style  which  arose  from  its  use  in  Europe  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
may  well  have  received  a  great  impulse  from  the  "\perience  of  Saracenic  axcl»i« 
tfctuie  jrained  by  Europeans  in  the  crusades. 


490  GESTA   CHRIST/. 

arcade  over  arcade,  the  broad  sweeps  of  richly-colored 
light  and  deep  shadows,  the  immense  height  of  the  in- 
terior, the  continual  upward  tendency  of  every  port'on 
of  the  building — from  the  foundation  and  flying  buttress 
and  external  pinnacle  through  the  arches  and  groins 
meeting  in  the  elevated  nave,  to  the  succession  above  of 
galleries,  clerestories,  arches,  broaches,  cusps,  pinnacles, 
crockets,  and  roof,  till  the  top  of  the  dizzy  spire  was 
reached  by  the  eye — all  gave  the  mind  of  the  spectator 
an  impression  of  the  boundless  and  the  eternal.  He 
was  as  one, 

"  Watching  with  upturned  eye  the  tall  tower  grow, 
And  mount,  at  every  step  with  living  wiles 
Instinct,  to  rouse  the  heart  and  lead  the  will 
By  a  bright  ladder  to  the  world  above."  ' 

The  characteristic  conception  at  the  basis  of  this  archi- 
tecture from  which  it  derives  its  name  was  in  itself  aspir- 
ing, and  controlled  the  whole  structure.  The  pointed 
arch"  seemed  to  lead  upwards  towards  heaven.  It  shaped 
the  mullions  and  divisions  of  the  windows;  it  led  to  sup- 
ports by  piers  rather  than  walls,  and  these  again  of  neces- 
sity to  flying  buttresses  and  pinnacles  and  outer  aisles. 

'    Wordsworth. 

2  In  construction  the  pointed  arch  has  a  greater  power  of  carrying  weight 
with  lessened  thrust  outwards,  and  a  facility  of  proportioning  its  height  to  that 
of  supporting  jambs.  Its  tendency  is  especially  vertical,  and  it  has  great  ad- 
vantage  in  groined  vaulting;  it  permits  broad  window  spaces,  so  much  neg- 
lected  by  the  Greeks,  and  naturally  leads  to  decoration  by  window  glass— the 
great  ornament  of  the  Pointed  Gothic.  It  almost  compels  the  adoption  of  the 
buttress  and  flying  buttress,  and  the  sharp  gabled  roof  (a  feature  unknown  to 
the  Greeks),  and  connects  naturally  with  the  bell  tower  or  campanile.  Its 
advantage  would  at  once  be  seen  in  the  wide  spanning  arches  of  vaulting, 
in  the  arches  carrying  the  central  tower,  and  in  the  gables  and  the  wide  archci 
nf  the  nave  arcades. 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  49I 

It  created  the  pointed  vault,  high  gable,  and  slender 
vaulting  shaft;  it  was  in  harmony  with  an  apparently 
light  and  aerial  building,  wherein  stained  windows  occupy 
so  large  a  wall  space,  and  traceries  and  filigrees  of  stone 
cover  the  surface.  It  naturally  led  to  arch  above  arch, 
to  triforia  and  clerestories,  and  that  wonderful  pyramid- 
iiing  of  arches,  pinnacles,  buttresses,  roofs,  and  spires 
which  make  the  best  Gothic  cathedral  seem  like  a  sym- 
metrical product  of  vegetation,  a  natural  growth.^  It  is 
impossible  for  any  thoughtful  person  to  stand  under  that 
wonderful  structure  of  the  Pointed  Gothic,  the  Cologne 
Cathedral,  without  feeling  some  such  impression  as  he 
does  in  the  ancient  forests  or  near  a  mighty  cliff — of  an 
unseen  Power,  of  Infinite  Majesty.  The  vast  heights 
and  mysterious  spaces  strike  him  with  awe.  The  won- 
derful symmetry  and  airiness  of  this  astonishing  struct- 
ure, the  rich  breadths  of  colored  light  and  mellowed 
shadows,  the  delicate  network  of  mullions,  arches,  ribs, 
stays,  and  tracery,  the  vast  masses  which  seem  to  hover 
in  air,  so  perfect  is  their  support,  and  the  gradual  growth 
as  it  were  of  all  from  the  earth,  through  flying  buttresses, 
pinnacles,  and  roofs  to  the  spires  above,  touch  his  sense 
of  harmony,  and  he  feels  himself  in  presence  of  the  spirit 
of  beauty.  Worship  becomes  the  natural  language  of  the 
place. 

Uhland  has  partially  expressed  some  of  these  feelings 
in  his  poem  on  the  "  Lost  Church"  : 

Wie  mir  in  jenen  Hallen  war. 

Das  kann  ich  nicht  mit  Worten  schildem, 

Die  Fenster  gllihten  dunkelklar 

Mit  aller  Martrer  frommen  Bildern; 


Hopt. 


49a  GESTA   CHRIST! 

Dann  sah  ich,  wundcrsam  erhellt. 
Das  Bild  zum  Leben  sich  erweiternr 
Ich  sah  hinaus  in  eine  Welt 
Von  heilgen  Fraucn,  Gottesstreitem. 

Die  Verlcrne  Kirc\e, 

"Words  cannot  paint  what  there  within 
A.woke  my  spirit's  ecstasies. 
The  darkly  brilliant  windows  glowed 
With  martyrs'  pious  effigies. 
Into  a  new  and  living  world. 
Rich  imaged  forth  I  gazed  abroad, 
A  world  of  holy  women  and 
Of  warriors  of  the  host  of  God." 

Lord  Lindsay'' s  Translation. 

The  Gothic  cathedral  is  certainly  a  new  gift  in  the 
world  of  art  to  the  civilized  races.  It  is  an  indirect  pro- 
duct of  Christianity.  We  would  not  in  this  assume  that 
there  was  any  mysterious  or  supernatural  appearance  of 
the  Pointed  Gothic  in  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
This  style  was  a  fruit  of  evolution  or  development  from 
the  previous  styles.  It  arose  naturally  from  the  Rounded, 
the  Norman  or  Lombard  or  Early  Gothic,  and  perhaj.** 
ultimately  from  the  Byzantine  and  Saracenic  and  Greek. 

But  stimulating  the  sense  of  beauty  and  the  desire  to 
develop  new  resources  in  the  forms  of  architecture  then 
known,  there  was  in  that  age  a  peculiar  religious  sen- 
timent, which  found  its  best  expression  in  the  aspiring 
and  reverential  features  of  the  Pointed  Gothic  cathedral. 
This  was  assisted  by  a  remarkable  social  institution  of 
those  ages,  of  which  we  shall  now  speak. 

The  Gilds. — We  have  already  observed  that  the  paint- 
ers of  Italy  in  the  thirteenth  century  formed  themselves 
into  associations,  which  had  for  their  objects  spiritual 
and  moral  improvement  as  well  as  proficiency  in  theii 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHKIST/A.VITY  UPON  ART.  ^93 

art.     These  fraternities,  no  doubt,  had  a  profound  infli 
ence  in  shaping   the  character  of  the   religious   schooh 
of  art  of  Sienna  and  Umbria. 

The  various  gilds  throughout  Europe  were  filled  in 
the  beginning  with  this  same  religious  enthusiasm.  In 
their  charters  and  laws  they  all  connected  charities  and 
acts  of  devotion  with  their  professional  objects.  The 
regulations  nearly  always  begin:  "  After  these  things 
are  done  which  are  appropriate  to  the  Christian  relig- 
ion and  belong  to  God ' V  then  follow  more  practical 
directions  to  the  confratriis  or  fraternities. 

The  Associations  were  said  to  be  formed  "not  only 
for  present  advantage  and  temporal  gains,  but  more  for 
celestial  and  eternal  benefits."  ^  No  one  in  the  com- 
mencement of  them  was  admitted  as  a  member,  even 
of  the  lowest  trade,  "whose  moral  conduct  and  honor 
were  not  stainless;  no  one  who  had  not  proved  himself 
a  proper  workman,  and  therefore  no  one  who  had  not 
served  a  regular  apprenticeship.^  No  member  was  al- 
lowed to  possess  tools  unless  these  were  proven  by 
competent  testimony  to  be  good  and  honest." 

"In  the  worship  of  God  Almighty,"  says  the  con- 
stitution of  an  ancient  English  gild  (Garklekhith, 
1375  A.D.),  and  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  his  mother, 
this  fraternity  is  begun  of  good  men  for  the  amend- 
ment of  our  lives  and  souls,  and  to  nourish  more 
love  between  the  brethren  and  sisteren  of  the  Broth- 
erhood, etc."* 

'  Post  peracta  ilia  quae  Dei  sunt  et  Christianae  Religion  i  conveniunt,  et  cet 
(Labb.  Cone.  t.  v.  16.) 

*  Non  solum  pro  commodis  presentibus  et  lucris  temporalibus  sed  magis 
pro  beneficiis  celestibus  et  perpetuis.  Das  Gildenwcsen  im  Miitel  Alter.  IVilda, 
p.  358. -Halle,  1835. 

2  English  Gilds. — T,  Smith,  London,  1870.  •*  3id.,  cxxix- 


«94  GESTA  CHRIST/. 

In  a  similar  spirit  the  gild  of  goldsmiths  in  Svenburgh 
begin  their  charter,  "  How  lovely  when  brethren  dwell 
together  in  unity."  And  the  merchants'  gild  at  Olden- 
see  (1476)  open  theirs  with,  "Inasmuch  as  God  is  Love, 
and  whosoever  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in  Him,"  etc. 
That  of  St.  Olaf's  at  Store  Heddingen  proclaims:  "Be 
it  known  to  you,  brethren  and  sisteren,  that  this  as- 
sociation is  founded  not  for  the  sake  of  wassail,  but 
to  assist  law  and  order,  and  that  brother  may  help 
brother."  ^  Such  phrases  are  common  in  all  these  an- 
cient charters. 

The  gilds  of  masons  and  builders  were  especially  in- 
spired with  this  religious  enthusiasm.  It  was  often  said  of 
them  that  they  "  worked  not  for  profit,  but  the  salvation 
of  their  souls  "  (pro  salute  animae  non  pro  crumena). 
They  were  a  kind  of  laical  church.' 

These  gilds  were,  no  doubt,  as  exclusive  and  as  selfish 
in  competition  as  are  the  modern  trades'  unions.  They 
held  in  their  hands  the  business  of  architecture  of  Europe, 
and  did  their  best  to  keep  it.  They  were  at  times  cruel 
and  oppressive  towards  their  own  offending  members. 
They  were  a  laical  church,  and,  like  their  more  religious 
exemplar,  often  violated  the  professed  principles  of  re- 
ligion in  their  association.  But  there  was  burning  among 
them  a  spark  of  the  Christian  fire  which  enlightened  and 
inspired  their  professional  work. 

Their  work  became  known  for  its  singularly  conscien- 
tious, thorough,  and  reverent  character.  The  ornamen- 
tation and  detail  labored  upon  by  them  in  hidden  parts 
of  the  sacred  buildings,  the  religious  structures  erected 

'  Fratres  et  sorores  notum  sit  v  )bis,  istud  convivium,  non  causS  potationii 
esse  inchoatum  std  ordini,  et  cet,  ut  frater  fratri  auxilietur,  et  cet  {^GildeUm 
Wfsen,  p.  33.) 

»  FiM. 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  49$ 

in  forests  and  wildernesses  and  remote  and  inaccessible 
places,  showed  the  same  spirit  of  conscientiousness  and 
devotion. 

Never  in  the  history  of  human  art  has  such  painstaking, 
honest,  and  conscientious  work  on  the  inaccessible  and 
unseen  portions  of  sacred  buildings  been  seen  as  in  the 
pious  labors  of  the  builders  of  cathedrals  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries.  The  architectural  investigator 
of  the  nineteenth  century  is  amazed  and  awed  to  discover 
sometimes  on  remote  portions  of  a  church  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  beautifully  carved  and  delicate  stonework, 
with  every  detail  perfect,  which  no  human  eye  had  been 
able  to  see  for  six  hundred  years,  as  if  the  workman  had 
chiseled  these  exquisite  ornamentations  "  for  the  love 
of  God,"  and  not  for  praise  or  hire^  from  men.  Nor  does 
it  lower  the  aspiration  that,  once  being  imbued  with  the 
devotion  of  the  age,  the  architect  and  builder  did  his 
work  not  conscious  always  of  the  divine,  but  from  the 
habit  of  honest  and  reverent  work  taught  him  by  his 
faith.  It  was  simply  unconscious  religion  in  practi- 
cal life. 

The  devout  tone  and  remarkable  skill  of  these  ma- 
sons made  them  favorites  of  the  clergy  and  the  popes. 
The  builders  carried  with  them  from  Italy  to  other 
Christian  countries  Pontifical  bulls  to  protect  and  aid 
them.  Yet  they  were  a  reaction  against  ecclesiastical 
power.  It  is  without  doubt  these  gilds  of  masons,  where 
each  laborer  felt  himself  at  once  an  artist  and  a  relig- 
ious missionary,  that  in  the  thirteenth  century  carried 
the  inspiration  and   the  science   of  the   Pointed   Gothic 

'  A  remarkable  instance  of  this  was  related  to  me  by  a  friend  in  the  re. 
newal  of  the  celebrated  Sainte  Chapelle  m  Pans,  erected  under  Louis  XI.  (1202), 
where  the  most  exquisitely  carved  stone  'lowers  ^vere  discovered  on  the  pin* 
nacles  upon  the  roof.     They  had  remained  unseen  for  six  hundred  years. 


496  GESTA   CHRISTI. 

architecture'  to  all  the  leading  countries  of  Europe.*  It 
is  difficult  otherwise  to  account  for  so  many  wonderful 
cathedrals  arising  or  being  restored  in  various  parts  of 
Europe,  in  similar  general  style,  and  yet  with  so  much 
individual  invention  and  genius  and  such  deep  reverence 
expressed  in  the  designs.  These  devout  laborers,  trained 
in  certain  scientific  methods  of  building  which  they  held 
as  secrets,  went  from  one  country  to  another  as  artists  to 
express  their  love  of  beauty  and  their  adoration  of  Christ 
in  temples  which  should  be  houses  of  worship  and  sym- 
bols of  majesty  and  harmony  for  all  succeeding  ages. 
They  began  under  the  sole  conditions  of  the  pointed  arch, 
suitability  to  climate,  and  the  cruciform  ground  plan,  and 
then  chiseled  their  aspirations  in  arch  above  arch,  in  tri- 
foria  and  elevated  arcades,  in  elongated  windows  and 
rich  window  spaces,  in  clustered  columns  supporting  on 
delicate  ribs  great  expanses  of  roof,  in  pointed  vault, 
high  gable,  and  slender  shaft,  in  flying  buttress  and 
pinnacle  and  sharp  roof,  and  in  towers  with  gradually 
diminishing  galleries  and  arches  till  the  tall  spire  is 
ended. 

These  wonderful  symmetrical  structures  of  stone,  ris- 
ing like  rounded  pines  to  the  skies,  are  the  prayers  of 
the  medieval  laborer.  This  lace-work  of  stone  mullions 
and  arches  and  ribs  and  stays,  this  gossamer  made  of  the 
rock,  this  filigree  of  masonry,  are  his  offerings  of  beauty 
and  perfected  work  to  Him  who,  he  believed,  had  sacri- 
ficed all  for  men.  The  rich  windows  and  broad  beams  of 
colored  light,  the  exquisite  span  of  the  pointed  arch,  the 

'  See  Dallaway's  Hist,  of  Architecture,  Wren's  Parentalia,  and  Pownall's 
Archaologia. 

2  A  ceite  epoque,  la  franc  ma9onnerie  6tait  une  institution  tout  &  fait  artis- 
tiqus,  une  Academie,  ou  tous  les  travailleurs  avaient  une  place.  {Hist,  de  k 
Ste.  Chapelle.     Decloux,  Paris,  1857.) 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  497 

high  and  solemn  nave,  the  mysterious  vistas,  are  his 
thoughts  of  worship  and  love  to  the  unspeakable  One. 
We  know  but  little  about  the  history  of  these  humble 
and  inspired  workingmen.  In  England  we  hear  of  legis- 
lation against  them  in  the  time  of  Edward  III.  (i35i)and 
of  Henry  VI.  (1425),  showing  that  the  ruling  authorities 
had  become  independent  of  them.  But  as  far  back  as 
1202,  we  read  that  Bishop  de  Lacy  founded  or  introduced 
a  fraternity  of  masons,  to  last  five  years,  to  repair  the 
Cathedral  of  Winchester,  held  to  be  the  first  completed 
specimen  of  Pointed  Gothic  in  England.^  They  are 
said '  to  have  been  first  encouraged  by  Henry  III.'  (1216). 
In  1427,  Bishop  Lacy  sends  Free  Masons  to  Bere  to  pro- 
vide stone  for  the  Cathedral  of  Exeter.  In  the  reign  of 
Henry  VI.  (1422)  the  Masons  in  Suffolk  stipulated  in 
their  contracts,  that  they  should  be  provided  with  a 
lodge  by  the  parishes,  and  with  various  articles  of  ap- 
parel.* Liberty  to  impress  Masons  was  given  by  law  in 
1435.  Ii"^  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.,  Prior  Gybbs  grants  office  for  life  of  "Master  of  all 

'  Anno  1202,  D.  Winton,  G.  de  Lacy  constituit  confratriam  pro  repara- 
done  ecclesiae  Winton,  duraturam  ad  quinque  annos  completos. — Annalei 
Winton  (Britton). 

*  Storer's  Gothic  Architect.  Convocati  sunt  artifices  Angli  et  Franci;  this 
V  as  for  the  completion  of  Westminster  Abbey.     See  Dallaway. 

3  Britton's  Exeter  Cath.,  p.  97.  Smirke  [Archaologia)  thinks  the  Free 
Masons  brought  the  Pointed  Arch  to  perfection. 

"  From  the  first  use  of  the  Gothic  in  the  twelfth  century,"  says  Dallaway, 
in  a  quotation,  "to  its  completion  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  improvements 
were  owin.7  to  the  munificence  of  the  Church  and  the  vast  abilities  of  the  Free 
Masons  of  the  Middle  Ages.  These  scientific  persons  have  great  claims  to  our 
admiration  from  the  richness  and  fertility  of  their  inventive  powers." 

The  History  of  Canterbury  Cathedral(y^\.\\s''\  says  nothing  of  Free  Masons, 
but  speaks  of  foreign  architects  and  workmen. 

See  Krauser-  t 'irchettiau,  i.  522,  on  Masonic  Brotherhoo  Is. 

*  Hope,  i.  211 


498  GESTA   CHRISTI 

works"  of  convent,  commonly  called  "  Free  Masonry,"  to 
a  certain  person,  "Free  Mason"*  (Britton,  ^«/A  Abbey 
Ck.,  p.  37).  The  Free  Masons  are  spoken  of  in  an  act 
of  C.  II.  (1684)  and  a  special  assize  was  set  for  them. 

In  Scotland  they  are  related  to  have  built  the  Abbey 
of  Kilwinniny  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  In 
Picardy  and  the  Isle  of  France,  they  are  spoken  of  as 
early  as  the  twelfth  century.'' 

In  Germany  they  were  held  in  honor  for  the  longest 
period,  as  we  hear  of  a  lodge  of  Free  Masons  placed  at 
the  head  of  all  the  lodges  of  that  country  in  1459  for  fin- 
ishing the  Cathedral  of  Strassburg,'  which  may  rank 
with  the  Cologne  Cathedral  as  the  most  complete  speci- 
men of  the  Pointed  Gothic* 

The  foundation  of  the  churches  and  cathedrals  of 
England  has  always  some  religious  expression  connected 
with  it. 

Thus  the  Abbot  of  Fulda  (820  A.D.)  built  a  little  round 
church  in  the  cemetery  of  the  Church  o^  Glastenbury 
"This  edifice,"  says  the  historian,  "the  Aobot  and  his 


'  "John  Hylmer  and  William  Virtue,  Free  Masons,  undertook  the  vault  of 
the  roof  of  the  choir  (St.  George's  Chapel)  for  ;^700  in  1506."  (Dallaway, 
St.  George^ s  Chapel,  p.  169.) 

2  Vitet,  Notre  Dame  de  Noyon,  p.  123.  Van  Overstraeten  {Arch,  des  Tem- 
ples Chret.)  attributes  the  origin  of  the  Free  Masons  and  the  Pointed  Gothic 
to  England. 

»  Hope's  Essay,  ii.  376. 

4  It  should  be  remarked  that  Street  did  not  find  in  Spain  any  trace  of  liic 
Free  Masons  in  the  Gothic  architecture. — (Street's  Gothic  Architecture  in 
Spain.)  Possibly  this  "  lay  church  "  (as  Vitet  calls  them)  found  themselves  out 
of  place  in  this  bigoted  country.  Or  possibly,  Street  has  not  correctly  translated 
the  names  of  the  Masons  in  the  old  contracts. 

Le  Due  speaks  of  the  work  of  the  Free  Masons  and  of  the  Pointed  Gothio 
M  ••  a  protest  against  monastic  power." 


INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON  ART.  499 

companions  erected  under  divine  teaching-,  figuring  some 
great  thing.  I  know  not  what,  but  conceive  it  may  be 
considered  a  figure  of  Christ  and  the  Church.  .  .  .  And 
the  eight  columns  standing  in  the  te^aple  of  God  may 
shadow  forth  the  eight  beatitudes.  .  .  .  But  the  round 
form  of  the  Church  having  no  end,  and  encircling  the 
principle  of  life — that  is,  the  divine  sacraments — ma}- 
fairly  be  taken  to  signify  the  Kingdom  of  Eternal  Ma- 
jesty, and  the  hope  of  Life  everlasting,  and  the  never- 
failing  rewards  with  which  the  just  shall  finally  be 
crowned."^ 

So  in  the  Church  of  Ely,  the  Lady-chapel  was  begun 
by  John  of  Wisbeach  in  1321,  "  but  he  had  not  sufificient 
means,  but  firmly  trusted  in  the  divine  aid,  and  com- 
mending himself  and  his  work  to  God  Almighty  and 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  prayed  earnestly  and  without  in- 
termission that  He  would  assist  him  in  all  his  need, 
and  God  Almighty  who  according  to  His  mercy,  mak- 
eth  poor  and  maketh  rich,^  abaseth  and  lifteth  up,  never 
suffered  him  to  abound  or  to  be  in  want  during  his 
whole  work." 

The  histories  of  the  Cathedrals  show  a  like  spirit 
of  piety  and  devotion  in  their  construction.  It  is  not 
to  be  supposed  of  course  that  every  mason  and  work- 
man and  architect  engaged  in  these  structures  was 
equally  animated  with  this  religious  fervor;  but  the 
prevailing  tone,  the  inspiration  at  the  basis  was  relig- 
ious, and  this  affected  all  employed  and  influenced  the 
whole  work. 

These  then  are  the  side-gifts  of  Christianity  to  the 
modern  world;  the  ideal  of  the  Madonna  as  the  beatified 
woman,  and  the  conceptirn  of  the  Pointed  Gothic  Ca- 

»   Vita  Eigilis.  2  Hist.  Eli,  Wharton,  i.  651. 


500  GESTA    CHRISTI. 

thedral  as  the  temple  of  worship  and  aspiratioi  and  sa- 
cred thought.  They  are  not  to  be  ranked  with  the  great 
achievements  of  this  Faith  chronicled  in  this  volume, 
but  they  have  had  their  share  in  the  advancing  culture 
of  the  leading  races  of  mankind,  and  are  destined  not  to 
be  forgotten. 


APPENDIX. 


ANCIENT  HUNGARIAN  LEGISL4TI0N. 

The  ancient  laws  of  St  Stephen,  King  of  Hungary,  who  reigned 
about  looo  a.d.,  bear  out  all  that  has  been  said  of  the  humane 
progress  urged  by  Christianity  in  other  ancient  codes  of  Europe. 

Manumission  of  slaves  is  encouraged,  and  if  made  by  will,  no 
one  is  allowed  to  break  it ;  and  if  only  promised  by  a  master,  his 
widow  must  carry  out  the  purpose  of  her  husband /r^  redemptione 
aiiimce,  for  the  salvation  of  her  soul  (ii,  17).  No  free  man  is 
permitted  under  any  pretext  to  be  enslaved  (11,  20). 

Piety  and  compassion  and  the  Christian  virtues  are  urged  by 
the  king,  as  if  he  were  a  pastor  rather  than  a  ruler,  especially  on 
the  ground  that  "  the  Lord  of  virtues  is  the  King  of  kings  "  (Nam 
Dominus  virtutum  ipse  est  Rex  Regum,  ii-io). 

The  religious  prmciple  of  equality  is  seen  in  the  law  that  the 
property  of  a  peasant  should  be  divided  equally  among  sons  and 
daughters  (iii,  29),  and  respect  for  woman  in  the  entire  power 
given  to  the  widow  over  her  property  (11,  24). 

The  barbaric  element,  not  yet  modified  by  religion,  is  found  in 
these  laws,  in  the  compensation  affixed  to  the  murder  of  a  wife. 
The  nobleman  escapes  with  the  payment  of  fifty  bullocks  and  a 
penance  of  fasting ;  the  soldier  with  ten  bullocks  and  a  fast,  and 
the  ignoble  with  five  bullocks  and  a  like  penance  (11,  14). 

This  legislation  is  so  soon  after  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  the  idea  of  the  dower  has  a  barbaric  tinge,  as  a 
compensation  to  the  wife  for  what  she  has  endured  in  marriage. 
Dotem  dicimus,  quae  uxori  propter  ejus  deflorationem,  et  con- 
cubitum,  de  bonis  mariti  datur  (i,  90). 


502  APPENDIX. 

The  dower  had  not  yet  received  its  new  character  under  reli- 
gion.    It  was  only  the  coarse  Morgengabe. 

(See  Corpus  Jicris  Hungari(z  Budae,  1779.  Saridi  Steph.  Reg. 
Dec.  about  1000  a.d.) 

The  remarkably  free  position  of  woman  in  Hungarian  history, 
and  her  legal  independence  now,  is  no  doubt  due  to  these  early 
influences  of  the  Christian  Religion.  It  certainly  did  not  come 
from  Roman  Law  or  the  Teutonic  codes  and  customs. 

(See  also  Die  Ungar.  Staaisburgerinn,  etc.  J.  v.  Fejes.  Pest 
i8ia). 


INDEX. 


yEmilius,  Paulus,  referred  to,  25. 

/Ethclbirht,  King,  law  againstfeuds, 
214. 

Aethelhert,  law  of,  concerning  mar- 
riage and  wives,  122. 

Affection,  the  modern  link  between 
parent  and  child,  14,  15 

Agnosticism,  woman  under,  298, 
299. 

Agobard,  St.,  quoted,  119. 

Aim,  the  author's,  in  this  work,  2-5. 

Alabama,  case  of  the,  351  ;  arbi- 
tration on,  353,  354. 

Alemanns,  lav,"s  of,  concerning 
marriage,  i-z. 

Alfred,  King,  law  concerning 
strangers,  1 93  ;  moral  laws  of, 
209,  2io;  concerning  feuds, 
215  ;  extract  from  the  will  of, 
concerning  slaves,  244  ;  slaves 
under,  247, 

Algiers,  woman  in,  460. 

Alms-giving,  the  root  of  excessive, 
104. 

America,  appeal  for  murder  in,  172, 
173  ;  the  stranger  in,  195,  196  ; 
legislation  respecting  woman  in, 
291  ;  law  of  divorce  in,  307,  308  ; 
and  privateering,  337-339;  in- 
structions for  regulating  war, 
343  ;  oj)ponents  to  slavery,  371- 
373}    final    struggle    to    ubolish 


slavery,  384-386;  duelling  in, 
396-398  ;  reformatories  in,  402  ; 
educational  charities  in,  402,  403  ; 
societies  for  the  protection  of 
animals,  404 ;  cruel  punish- 
ments in,  407,  408  ;  imprison- 
ment for  debt,  409  ;  intemper- 
ance in,  434,  435,  436,  444. 

Anniens,  "  Peace  of  God  "  at,  148. 

Anecdote,  refusing  to  fight,  89. 

Anglo-Saxon,  marriage  laws  of, 
129,  130;  law,  nature  of,  206, 
207,  208. 

Anglo-Saxons  and  the  shipwrecked, 
197,  198. 

Animals,  societies  for  the  protection 
of,  404. 

Anti-Slaveiy  Society,  American, 
founded,  382. 

Appendix,  477,  478. 

Apostles,  their  idea  of  marriage, 
3',32. 

Arabia,  a  proverb  of,  459. 

Arabs,  early  civilization  of,  456 ; 
influence  of  Mohammedanism 
upon,  456,  457. 

Aragon,  the  decree  of  a  king  of, 
464,  465. 

Arbitration,  origin  of,  85  ;  history 
of,  in  Germany,  155,  156  ;  forms 
of,  157;  instances  of,  158;  the 
result      of      Christianitv.     27 j , 


INDEX. 


Grotius  on,  333  ;  Christian  and 

possible,  346  ;  instances  of,  346- 

354;  will  it  become  universal,  355. 
Aristotle,  suggestion  of,  to  relieve 

poverty,  99. 
Arms,  brotherhood    of,  263,    264  ; 

an  old  ballad  on,  264. 
Arms,  use  of,  restricted  in  vi'ar,  345. 
Armstrong,  the  case  of  the,  349. 
Arthur,  King,  the  Round  Table   of, 

256  ;  gentleness  of,  262  ;  Britain 

under,  263. 
Asceticism  and  celibacy,  evil  effects 

of,  32,  33- 
Associations,  peace,  148. 
Asylums  for   orphans   in    Europe, 

82. 
Augustine,  St.,  quoted  (note),  91. 
Austria,  instruments  of  torture  used 

in,  406. 
Austrian  Code,  divorce  under  the, 

305- 

Authority, Roman  parental,  9;  modi- 
fied by  Stoics  and  Christian 
emperors,  12. 

Authors,  immorality     of  classical, 

38. 
Authors,  Latin,  on  the  exposure  of 

children,  72-75. 
Authors,  Roman,  on  parental  power, 

10,  II  ;  on  divorce  and  woman's 

degradation,  23-25. 
Austrage,  the,  154-159- 

Ballad,  an  old,  quoted,  255,  258  ; 

on  brotherhood  in  arms,  264. 
Balle,  John,  preaching  of,  referred 

to,  234. 
Barbadoes,  protest    against  sla- 
very in,  374. 
Barbarossa,  Emperor,  cruelty  of, 
7.26. 


Barnes,  Dr.  A ,  on  slavery,  381. 

Battle,   wager   by,     1 61-163  ;    pre- 
valence of,    164 ;    mode  of  pro- 
cedure, 165-167  ;  form  of  oaths, 
165,    166  ;     instances    of,    167 
opposed    by    the  Church,    168 
opposed  by  monarchs,  169,   170 
opposed  to  the   Christian  spirit, 
170;  slow  abolition  of,    171  ;  in 
capital      offences,      171,      172  ; 
abolished    by  Christianity,   273, 

274. 

Bayard,  precepts  of  the  mother  of, 
255  ;  noble  words  of,  258. 

Benevolence  and  evolution,  473. 

Bentham  on  duelling,  391,  392. 

Bequests,  ancient  charitable,  xoo. 

Bernhardi  on  torture,  187,  188. 

Bietigheim,  demands  of  the  peas- 
ants of,  234. 

Blackstone,  on  woman  under  Com- 
mon Law,  288,  289. 

Blood-money,  138. 

Blood-revenge, taught  by  Confucius, 

454- 
Bluntschli,  Prof.,  on  private  marine 
property,  339  ;  new  war  code  of, 

342,  343. 

Book,  the  democratic,  430. 

Boston  Herald  quoted,  292,  293. 

Bourges,  Archbishop  of,  charter  of 
peace,  150. 

Brahmanic  faith,  corruption  of,  447. 

Bristol,  the  slave  market  of,  242. 

Britain,  condition  under  King 
Arthur,  263. 

Britain,  Great,  and  Brazil,  arbitra- 
tion between,  350. 

British  colonies,  slavery  in,  376 ; 
abolition  of,  377, 

British  slave  trade,  commencement 
of,   368,  369  ;  reasons  for  encou- 


INDEX. 


505 


raging  it  in  the  colonies,  370  ; 
opponents  to,  373,  374 ;  Parlia- 
ment petitioned  to  abolish,  374  ; 
Clarkson  on,  374 ;  the  long 
struggle  against  and  abolition  of, 

375- 
Brotherhood,  Christian,  245. 
Bruce,  King,  and  the  poor  woman, 

260,  261. 
Brussels,  International  Conference 

at,  359- 
Buddhism,  influence  of,  on  woman's 
position,  36;  teachings  of,  451  ; 
defects  of,  452  ;  in  China,  453  ; 
in  Japan,  456. 

Cabet  on  Christianity,  419. 
Caesar  referred  to,  61. 
Canute,  King,  laws  of,  212,  213. 
Capitularies,    Charlemagne's,  302- 

305- 
Cargoes,  first  African  slave,  366, 367. 
Caste,  Hindoo,  448. 
Cato,  Porcius,  stricture  on  woman, 

24  ;  on  slavery,  47,  48. 
Cavalai,  Hugh  de,  and  his  fellow- 
knight,  263,  264. 
Celibacy,  evil  effects  of,  32,  33. 
Centurion,  the  Christian,  89. 
Challenge,  form  of,  in  the  middle 

ages,  142  ;  instances  of,  143. 
Chalons,  council  of,  and    schools, 

219;    decree   concerning   slaves, 

228,  229. 
Character,   Paul's    ideal,  for    man, 

103  ;  ideal  of  chivalric,  265-268  ; 

type  of,  moulded  by   Christ,  466. 
Charities,      educational,     in      the 

United  States,  402,  403. 
Charity,   96  ;    and   the    ancient 

world, 97;  modern,  the  result  of 

Christ's  teaching,  loi;  Roman 


emperors  advocate,  102  ;  effects 
of,  103  ;  an  institution  of  Chris- 
tianity, 279,  280. 

Charlemagne,  injunction  concern 
ing  widows,  131  ;  laws  concern- 
ing strangers,  192,  193  ;  capitu- 
laries, 202-205  ;  and  schools,  220 ; 
letter  to  the  abbot  of  Fulda,  220, 
221. 

Charles  V.  and  the  African  slave 
trade,  367. 

Chastity,  Justinian  on,  35  ;  German, 
and  Roman  impurity,  1 18,  119. 

Chaucer,  description  of  a  knight 
by,  258. 

Child,  position  of,  under  Chris- 
tianity, 218,  219. 

Childhood,  safeguards  for,  317,  318. 

Children,  Roman,  exposure  of,  72  ; 
Latin  authors  on,  72-75  ;  Stoics 
protest  against,  75  ;  early  Fathers 
protest  against,  76,  'J^ ;  laws 
against,  77-80. 

Children,  sale  of,  in  Europe,  81,  82  ; 
rewards  for  the  increase  of,  99. 

Children,  charities  for,  402,  403. 

Childrens'  Aid  Society,  New 
York,  318. 

Chili  and  the  United  States,  arbi- 
tration between,  350. 

China,  Buddhism  in,  453 ;  Con- 
fucianism in,  453  ;  position  of 
woman  in,  454,  455. 

Chivalry,  character  of,  253  ;  oaths 
of,  254,  255  ;  woman  and,  257  ; 
pity  for  an  enemy  taught  by, 
258  ;  courtesy,  259 ;  humanity 
of,  260 ;  the  prisoner  of,  261  ; 
gentleness  an  attribute  of,  262  ; 
and  hospitality,  262  ;  ideals  of, 
263  ;  brotherhood  in  arms,  263  ; 
devotion  to  ladies,  264 ;  the  ideal 


5o6 


INDEX. 


of  character,  267  ;  survival  of  the 
Christian  element  in,  268,  269. 

Christ,  a  new  moral  force,  i  ;  and 
personal  purity,  29  ;  and  mar- 
riage, 30,  300  ;  silence  on  slavery, 
42,  43  ;  principles  of  His  teach- 
ing, 43,  44  ;  opposed  to  war,  88  ; 
upon  property,  93  ;  communism 
of,  94,  95  ;  modern  charity  and, 
loi  ;  and  the  conquest  of  the 
Roman  world,  106 ;  teaching 
opposed  to  torture,  109  ;  silent 
victories  of,  270,  271. 

Christian  II.  of  Denmark,  and 
serfdom,  240. 

Christianity,  influence  on  Roman 
parental  power,  12-14 ;  on  the 
law  of  succession,  16-18  ;  in- 
fluence on  Roman  marriage,  21- 
23,  28,  33,  34  ;  position  of  woman 
under,  35  ;  and  slavery,  45  ; 
versus  the  Church,  46  ;  and 
rehabilitation  of  labour,  69  ;  and 
children,  83  ;  a  barbarous  race 
without,  112,  113;  a  blessing  to 
the  Germans,  119,  120;  and 
divorce,  128  ;  and  feuds,  141  ; 
and  mental  progress,  217,  218  ; 
position  of  the  child  under,  218, 
219 ;  charity  an  institution  of, 
279,  280 ;  and  duelling,  292  ; 
basis  of  political  economy,  421  ; 
a  grand  restraint,  461  ;  liberty 
and,  466,  467  ;  slow  influence  of, 

468,  469  J    what    has    retarded, 

469,  470 ;  evolution  and,  470 ; 
the  race  to  be  made  by,  474. 

Christians,  opposition  to  gladia- 
torial shows  by,  62,  63  ;  humane 
laws  concerning,  84. 

Church,  character  of  the,  seen,  2  ; 
0e  true  and  invisible,  3  ;  slaves 


in  the,  45  ;  versus  Christianityi 
46 ;  slavery  and  the,  53,  60 ; 
forbids  the  mutilation  of  slaves, 
67  ;  slaves  ransomed  by  the,  68  ; 
care  of  foundlings  by,  81,  82  ; 
inefficiency  of  a  State,  112  ;  and 
feuds,  140 ;  superstition  encou- 
raged by,  160,  161  ;  wager  by 
battle  opposed  by,  168,  169; 
opposes  the  ordeal,  174 ;  op- 
poses torture,  185,  186;  services 
to  intellectual  progress,  218  ;  and 
chivalry,  256  ;  and  concubinage, 
313  ;  and  the  African  slave  trade, 
365,  366  ;  opposes  duelling,  393. 

Church  and  State,  effects  of  the 
union  of,  51,  52. 

Churches,  enriched  by  charity,  loi, 
102  ;  the  blessings  of  Christian, 
427,  428. 

Cicero,  and  Roman  parental  power, 
1 1  ;  and  woman,  20  ;  on  divorce, 
23  ;  wives  of,  25. 

Citizen,  Grotius  on  the,  332  ;  dur- 
ing war,  341,  342. 

Civilization,  woman  a  factor  in,  36  ; 
moral  courage  and,  464. 

Clarkson  on  the  slave  trade,  374. 

Classic  nations  and  international 
law,  323,  324. 

Clay,  Henry,  on  duelling,  397. 

Clergy,  ordeal  approved  by  some 
of  the,  175  ;  English,  opposition 
to  slavery,  373. 

Climate  versus  religion,  461. 

Clubs,  Roman,  100. 

Code,  Justinian,  Roman  parental 
power  under,  13,  14  ;  and  laws  of 
succession,  16-18  ;  and  marriage, 
22. 

Code,  the  Napoleon,  referred  t(% 
134- 


INDEX, 


507 


Code,  the  Theodosian,  referred  to, 
12,  39. 

Codes,   New,   for   regulating  war, 

342  ;  probable  international,  357. 
Co-emption,    the  marriage   called, 

20,  21. 
Coleman,  Elihu,  on  slavery,  372. 
Collegia,  the  Roman,  100. 
Coloni,  the,  70,  224,  225  ;   in  the 

Middle  Ages,  236. 
Colonies,  and  slavery,  the,  370  ;  the 

British,  376  ;  abolition  of  slavery 

in,  377- 

Communism,  Christ's,  94,  95  ;  and 
Christianity,  414,  416. 

Communities,  mercantile  shipping, 
198. 

Comnenus  referred  to,  59. 

Concubinage,  law  relating  to 
Roman,  28  ;  and  the  Church, 
313  ;  influence  of  Christian 
teaching  on,  313,  314. 

Conference,  International,  at 
Brussels,  359. 

Confarreation,  form  of  marriage, 
20,  21. 

Confession  under  torture,  179. 

Confucianism,  teaching  of,  453,  454. 

Congress  of  Paris,  1856,  referred  to, 
338,  346,  348. 

Connecticut,  laws  of  divorce  in,  308. 

Conrad,  Emperor,  referred  to,  237. 

Constantine,  Emperor,  and  Roman 
parental  power  13  ;  and  the 
laws  of  succession,  16  ;  union 
of  Church  and  State  under, 
51,  52  ;  slavery  laws  under, 
52-54  ;  quoted,  63  ;  and  the 
protection  of  children  by,  78  ; 
review  of  the  humane  legisla- 
tion of,  84,  85. 

Convert,  the,  and  the  gladiato- 
rial show,  62,  63. 


Co-operation,    the   advantages    o^ 

413,  4x4- 

Council  of  Limoges,  ordinance  ol 
peace  of,  149. 

Councils,  and  the  exposure  of  chil- 
dren, 79 ;  efforts  to  establish 
peace,  148-150 ;  and  schools, 
219,  220  ;  and  slavery,  249. 

Courage,  and  future  Christian 
character,  463. 

Courtesy,  chivalry  and,  259-261. 

Courts,  formation  of  arbitration, 
357  ;  objections  to,  360. 

Crime,  fines  inflicted  for,  139; 
the  result  of  drink,  434,  435. 

Crusades,  the  effects  of,  on  man- 
umission, 237. 

Dana  referred  to,  340. 
Daughters,  the  Roman's  power 

over  his,  10,  11. 
Days,  sacred,  and  feuds,  139. 
Death,  the  penalty  of,  404,  405. 
Debt,  imprisonment  for,  408-410. 
December,  the  month  of  offerings, 

102. 
Democracy,  what  leads  to,  430. 
Denmark,  serfdom  in,  240. 
Depravity,    Roman,    in    the    first 

Christian   century,  24,  25 ;    and 

legislation,  26. 
Devices,     religious,     of     revolted 

peasants,  233. 
Divisions,  objects  of,  in  this  work, 

3-5- 
Divorce,  Roman  freedom  of,  23 ; 
authors  on,  23,  24  ;  instances  of 
Roman,  25  ;  three  conditions  of, 
26 ;  under  the  Justinian  code, 
27;  Scandinavian,  124,  125; 
Christianity  opposed  to,  128  ; 
Christian     view     of,    301  j    and 


5o8 


INDEX. 


Roman  law,  302,  303 ;  Church 
view  of  the  Middle  Ages,  303  ; 
Protestant  reformers  in  favour  of, 
304  ;  modern  tendency  in  favour 
of  freer,  304,  305  ;  in  the  United 
States,  307,  308  ;  result  and  dan- 
ger of  license  in,  308,  309  ;  evils 
of  freedom  of,  310,  311. 

Dooms,  King  Ethelred's,  211,  212. 

Dos,  Roman  laws  relating  to,  129. 

Dower,  the  modern,  in  marriage, 
129. 

Drink,  statistics  of,  434,  435. 

Droit  d'Aubame,  the,  193-19S  ; 
abolition  of,  195. 

Du  Quesclin,  dying  words  of,  258. 

Duel,  the  judicial,  165  ;  of  honour, 

393>  394- 
Duelling,  Bentham's  views  of,  391, 

392  ;    Christian   views   of,   392  ; 

the  Church  opposed  to,  393  ;  in 

France,  394  ;   in  England,  396  ; 

in  the  United  States,  396-398. 
Duels,  Grotius  on,  332. 

Economical  ideas,  progress  in,  423. 

Edmund,  King,  law  of,  against 
feuds,  214. 

Education,  a  better  form  of  charity, 
105  ;  the  councils  and,  220 ;  pro- 
moted by  Christianity,  277;  the 
popular  fruits  of  Christianity, 
426. 

Edward  III.  and  his  French  pri- 
soners, 259. 

Edward  IV.,  letter  on  trade  by,  422. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  law  against 
false  swearing,  211;  and  Chris- 
tian brotherhood,  245. 

Eldon,  Lord,  on  slavery,  366. 

Ehot,  John,  petition  of,  against 
slavery,  371,  372. 


Elsass,  demands  of  the  peasants  of^ 

234- 

Emancipation,  the  religious  duty 
of,  53  ;  progress  of  legal,  54,  55  ; 
the  religious  element  in,  229,  231  ; 
forms  of,  230,  231  ;  gradual  pro- 
cess of,  236-238. 

Emancipation  of  slaves  in  England, 
245,  246  ;  forms  of,  248  ;  motives 
for,  251,  252. 

Empire,  Roman,  condition  of,  in  the 
first  century  of  Christianity,  44. 

Emperors,  Christian,  and  Roman 
parental  authority,  12. 

Emperors,  Roman,  and  unnatural 
vices,  40  ;  charity  advocated  by, 
102. 

Endowment,  commencement  of 
ecclesiastical,  102. 

Enemy,  the  knight  taught  pity  for 
his,  258. 

England,  wager  by  battle  in,  165- 
167 ;  the  ordeal  forbidden  in, 
175;  torture  in,  184;-  laws 
against  strangers  in,  191  ;  slavery 
in,  241,252;  forms  of  manumis- 
sion in,  248  ;  serfdom  in,  250, 
252  ;  laws  of  divorce  in,  305  ; 
efforts  against  the  slave  trade  in, 
375  ;  cruel  punishments  in,  407  ; 
intemperance  in,  434,  435. 

England,  duelling  in,  394  ;  petition 
to  the  Lords  against,  395  ;  Anti- 
duelling  Association  formed, 
396  ;  the  Queen's  order  against, 
396. 

English  law  concerning  woman, 
134-136  ;  statesmen  on  the  ap- 
peal for  murder,  172  ;  laws  of, 
kings,  208-216;  peasants'  up- 
risings, 235;  and  Scotch  courtesy, 
261. 


INDEX. 


509 


Epigram,  Juvenal's,  23,  24. 

Equality,  Christianity  teaches  the 
principles  of,  296. 

Erixon,  the  Roman  knight,  referred 
to,  10. 

"Essay  on  Divorce,"  Woolsey's, 
quoted,  303. 

Ethelred,  the  dooms  of,  211,  212. 

Europe,  sale  of  children  in,  81,  82  ; 
important  work  of  woman  in, 
297,  298  ;  modern,  and  divorce, 
304,  305  ;  cost  of  the  peace 
establishments  of,  321  ;  abolition 
of  serfdom  in,  388,  389  ;  persecu- 
tion in,  442,  444. 

European  prisons,  great  reforms  in, 
400,  401. 

Evolution  and  Christianity,  470 ; 
and  benevolence,  473. 

Faiths  lacking  Christianity,  462. 

Family,  the  ancient  Roman,  15. 

Fathers,  early,  and  personal  purity, 
30;  and  the  exposure  of  children, 
■76,  77 ;  oppositions  to  war  by, 
89-91. 

Fathers,  Roman,  power  over  their 
children,  9-1 1  ;  power  modified 
by  the  Stoics,  12  ;  influence  of 
Christianity  on,  12  ;  Constantine 
and,  13. 

Feuds,  nature  of  personal,  137  ;  and 
fines,  138  ;  places  and  days  sacred 
from,  139  ;  decree  against,  140; 
efforts  of  the  Church  against, 
140;  Saxon  laws  against,  213; 
and  the  "Peace  of  God,"  214; 
King  Alfred's    laws    concerning, 

215- 

Fines,   institution   of,  for    injuries, 

138  ;  scale  of,  139. 
Fiske,  Mr.,  quoted,  473. 


Force,  Jesus  a  new  moral,  i. 

Forces,  non-Christian,  and  menta! 
stimulus,  217. 

Foundlings,  care  of,  by  the  Church, 
81,  82. 

Foulque,  the  knight,  257. 

France,  tutelage  abolished  in,  132  ; 
rules  of  private  war  in,  143  ;  in 
the  nth  century,  144  ;  torture  in, 
182,  183  ;  the  stranger  in,  193- 
195  ;  slavery  in,  238  ;  divorce 
in,  305  ;  freedom  of  royal  serfs 
in,  389  ;  duelling  in,  394. 

Franco-Prussian  war,  proclamation 
during,  342. 

Franklin,  B.,  efforts  to  abolish 
privateering,  337. 

Free  marriage,  the  Roman,  21  ;  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  127. 

Free  trade,  422-424. 

Freedom,  religious  ideas    of,    335, 

336. 
Froissart  quoted,  259,  261,  264. 
Fulda,    abbot    of,     Charlemagne's 

letter  to,  220,  221. 
Future  under  Christianity,  the,  474, 

475- 

Gains  on  the  reason  for  the  tutf- 
lage  of  woman,  20. 

Games,  gladiatorial,  Roman,  61,  62. 

Garrison  on  the  duty  of  emancipa- 
tion, 382. 

Geneva  arbitration,  the, 353,  354. 

Gentleness  a  knightly  attribute, 
262. 

German  code,  torture  under  the, 
181,  182. 

Germans,  character  of  the,  iii  ; 
absence  of  chivalry  among,  266. 

Germans,  marriage  of  the  anc  ienL 
125-127. 


§io 


INDEX. 


Germany,  *'  Peace  of  God  "  in,  153, 

154;     arbitration    in,     155-159; 

peasant    revolts    in,    233,    234  ; 

Christian       influence        against 

slavery  in,  239. 
Gesta  Christi,  the  real,  3. 
Gesta  Dei,  the,  476. 
Giving,  the  dutyof,  taught  by  Christ, 

96. 
Gladiatorial    games,    Roman,    61  ; 

instances    of,  61,  62  ;    Christian 

opposition    to,     62,     63  ;      laws 

against,  63. 
Glanville       on      laws     concerning 

woman,  134,  135  ;  quoted,  166. 
God,   societies   of  lovers   of,    427, 

428. 
Good  faith,  Grotius  on,  331, 
Gordon,  Dr.,  on  slavery,  373. 
Gortschakoff,   Prince,  quoted,  359, 

360. 
fiovernment,       Christianity      and 

Liberal,  429. 
Greeks  and  international  law,  the, 

321. 
Green,  "History  of  England"  by, 

quoted,  167. 
Grotius  on  international  law,  329- 

332  ;    on    arbitration,    333  ;    on 

persecution,  443,  444. 
Guelders,  Duke  of,  and  his  pledge, 

260. 
Guilds,  origin  of  Italian,  147. 


Habits,  reform  of,  a  check  to  in- 
temperance, 439. 

Hautefeuille  on  privateering,  338. 

Hawkins,  Sir  J.,  first  slave  voyage 
of,  366. 

Henry,  Prince  of  Portugal,  and 
slavery,  367. 


Hindoo    law,    woman    utidcr.    jj  ; 

position  of  wcman,  448-430. 
Hindoos,   religious    ideas    among, 

446,  447  ;    indifference  to  suffer- 
ing by  the  (note),  447. 
Hindoo  caste,  44S. 
History,  influence  of  unknown  live? 

on,  2,  3  ;    God  ever  working  in 

human,  445,  446 
Honour,  the  duel  of,  393,  394. 
Hope,  implantation  of,  in  man,  428. 
Hospitality,  knighthood  and,  262. 
Hospitals,  the  first,  102,  103. 
Howard,  John,  400. 
Howell  the  Good,  laws  of,  209. 
Humanity,  the  watchword  of,  196  ; 

increase    of,     between    nations, 

424. 
Hungarian  law,  and  the  stranger, 

193  ;     ancient    legislation,    477, 

478. 
Husband,   the  Roman,  20  ;    power 

of  the    German,    117,    118,    125, 

126. 

Iceland,  "  Peace  of  God"  in,  159. 
Ideas,  lives  inspired  by  moral,  428, 

429. 
Ideas,  progress  in  economical,  423. 
Ideal,  the  Christian,  464;  objections 

to,  464,  465. 
Illinois,  struggle  to  prevent  slavery 

in  (note),  383. 
India,  reasons  for  want  of  progress 

in,  448  ;    position  of  woman  in, 

448,  450. 
Indiana,  laws  of  divorce  in,  308. 
Individual,   legal   reform   and    the 

rights  of  the,  35. 
Industry,  Christ  teaches,  95. 
Ine,  King,  law  against  feuds,  2 1 4. 
Infidels,  wars  against,  329. 


INDEX. 


5" 


Inqiisition,  torture  by  the,  1 80. 

Institutions,  ancient  charitable,  loi, 
102. 

Insurance  societies,  ancient,  99  \ 
modern,  416,  417. 

Intellect.  Christianity  stimulates 
the,  222,  223. 

Intemperance,  causes  of,  433,  438  ; 
fearful  et^ects,  434  ;  statistics  of, 
434)  435  ;  American  laws  against, 
436  ;  best  safeguard  against,  437, 

438. 

International  codes,  probable  form- 
ation of,  357  ;  objections  to,  360. 

International  law,  320;  early  writers 
on,  328,  329  ;  progress  in  modern, 

Islam,  what  is  wanting  in,  460. 
Italy,  absence  of  chivalry  in,  266. 

Jamaica,  ininortation  of  slaves  to, 

369.  370. 
Japan,  failure  of  Buddhism  in,  456. 
Jesus,  a  new  moral  force,  i. 
Jews,  persecution  of  the,  442. 
Jubilee,  the  seven  years,  in  England, 

248. 
Judges,  King  Canute's    advice   to, 

213. 
"Judgments  of  the    Sea"  quoted, 

199. 
Judicial  duel,  the,  165. 
Julian  law  referred  to,  22,  23. 
Jurisprudence,  Roman,  influence  of 

the  Stoics  on,  46. 
Jus    Geniium,    the    Roman,    322, 

3-4- 
Justinian  code,  parenta*  power 
under,  13,  14  ;  and  succession, 
16-18  ;  and  marriage,  21  s)n  un- 
natuial  vices,  39;  concerning 
slavery,  55-58  ;  and  the  protec- 


tion of  voman,  66,  67  ;  and  the 
protection  of  children,  79,  80. 

Justinian,  houses  of  mercy  founded 
by,  80,  81. 

Juvenal,  an  epigram  by,  22,  23. 

Keltic  races,  character  of  the,  in. 
Kempis,    Thomas    k,    on    copying 

manuscripts,  221,  222. 
King,  the,  the  protector  of  widows, 

i3i- 

"  King's  Quarantine,"  the,  151. 

Kings,  laws  of  old  English,  20S-2 16. 

Knight,  description  of  a  young.  257; 
described  by  Chaucer,  258  ;  gen- 
tleness an  attribute  of  the,  262  ; 
in  courts  of  justice,  264. 

Knighthood, the  initiation  into,  253- 
256  ;  duties  of,  256  ;  the  ideal 
of,  256  ;  the  Church  and,  256  ; 
and  hospitality,  262. 

Knights,  honourable  conduct  of, 
260  ;  parting  of  two,  263,  264  ; 
advice  of  Louis  IX.  to  his,  266. 

Koran,  the  conception  of  God  in 
the,  460  ;  quoted  (note),  260. 

Labour,  the  rehabilitation  of,  69. 

Labourer,  blessing  of  the  Sabbath 
to  the,  410,  412  ;  effects  on  in- 
temperance on,  434. 

Ladies,  devotion  to  the  crown  of 
chivalry,  264. 

Law,  Anglo-Saxon,  206  ;  nature 
of,  207,  208. 

Law,  English,  concerning  womait, 
i34-'36. 

Law,  Grandeur  of  the  Roman,  160, 
161. 

I  aw.  International,  320  ;  early  wri- 
tes on,  328,  329 ;  progress  in 
mo^rn,  335-361. 


SI2 


INDEX. 


Law,  Julian,  referred  to,  22,  23. 

Law,  maritime,  England  opposed 
to  progress  in,  338. 

Law,  wager  of,  163. 

Law,  Welsh,  on  buying  a  wife,  123. 

Law,  woman  under  English  com- 
mon, 286-290. 

Laws  influenced  by  Christianity, 
276,277. 

Laws  of  nations,  Grotius  on  the, 

329-334- 

Laws  of  old  English  kings,  208-216. 

Laws,  religious,  211,  212. 

Laws,  Roman,  for  the  amelioration 
of  slaves,  50,  51  ;  Constantine's, 
52-54;  Justinian's,  55-58;  Leo's, 
58  ;  for  the  protection  of  actresses, 
66, 67 ;  against  exposing  children, 
77-80. 

Legge's  "  Confucius"  quoted,  455. 

Legislation,  American,  respecting, 
woman,  291-296. 

Legislation,  Charlemagne's,  imbued 
with  Christianity,  202-205. 

Legislation,  Constantine's  humane, 
84,  85. 

Legislation,  European,  for  the  ship- 
wrecked, 200. 

Legislation,     Hungarian,     ancient, 

477,  478. 

Legislation  in  advance  of  morahty, 
206. 

Leicester,  wager  of  battle  at,  167. 

Leo,  Emperor,  slave  laws  of,  58  ; 
on  the  observance  of  Sunday,86. 

Lex  Pompeia  de  Parric,  11. 

Liberal  Government  and  Chris- 
tianity, 466,  467. 

Liberty,  a  Stoic's  apothegm  on, 
48,  49  ;  Justinian's  laws  concern- 
irio'  55)  1)6  ;  Christianity  and^ 
466,  467. 


Life,  influence  of  woman  in  social 

298. 

Limoges,  council  of,  and  peace, 
149. 

Lives  inspired  b/  moral  ideas,  428, 
429. 

Londo  n,  free  trade  for  the  men  of, 
420. 

Louis,  Saint,  letter  of,  152  ;  instruc- 
tion to  his  knights,  266. 

Love,  power  of  the  religion  of,  355. 

Maine,  Sir  H.,  "  Early  History  of 
Institutions  "  quoted,  35. 

Maiuma,  the  Roman  show,  65. 

Mankind,  character  of  the  progress 
of,  9. 

Manners,  an  instance  of  knightly, 
260. 

Manu,  laws  of,  quoted,  448  ;  on 
woman,  449. 

Manumission,  forms  of,  330,  331. 

Manumission,  forms  of  in  England, 
248. 

Manuscripts,  copying  of  ancienti 
221,  222. 

Marcian  quoted,  12. 

Mario  quoted,  415. 

Marriage,  three  forms  of  ancient 
Roman,  20 ;  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity on,  21,  109,  no  ;  Constan- 
tine's legislation  affecting,  26,  27  ; 
Christ's  ideas  of,  30,  31  ;  the 
apostles'  ideas  of,  31,  32  ;  Chris- 
tianity and  Roman,  33,  34  ;  Jus- 
tinian on,  34,  35  ;  humane  laws 
concerning,  87,  88. 

Marriage,  ancient  German,  1 19 ; 
original  form  of  the  Teutonic, 
121,  122;  Scandinavian,  124; 
under  German  customs,  125-127  ; 
gradual  elevation  of,  129;  Charle- 


INDEX. 


513 


lagne's  laws  affecting,,  204  ;  puri- 
fied by  Christianity,  271,  272. 

Marriage  and  morals,  300-303  ; 
Christ's  estimate  of,  300  ;  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of,  301,  302  ; 
Chinch's  idea  of,  303  ;  Ameri- 
can ideas  of,  305-307  ;  how  re- 
garded in  New  York,  311,  312  ; 
the  model  of,  taught  by  Christ, 
312  ;  future  legislation  concern- 
ing, 312;  a  Hindoo's  feelings 
about,  450. 

Maximilian,  the  Christian  soldier, 
89. 

Mayence,  council  of,  and  schools, 
219. 

Mediation,  war  to  be  prevented 
by,  348  ;  instances  of,  348-350. 

Mercantile  communities  and  the 
shipwrecked,  198. 

Mercy,  houses  of,  for  foundlings, 
80,  81. 

Messenger,  a  Divine  peace,  151. 

Middle  Ages,  arbitration  in,  154- 
159  ;  wager  by  battle  in,  161-172; 
the  ordeal  in,  174-177  ;  and  in- 
ternational war,  324  ;  barbarities 
of  the,  325. 

Middle    passage,    horrors  of,  364, 

365- 
Mill's  "History  of  India  "quoted, 

447- 

Minors,  selling  the  home  of,  87. 

Missions,  426. 

Mohammedanism,  influence  of, 
456-458 ;  effects  of,  459  ;  en- 
courages kindness  to  the  poor, 
461. 

Monarchs,  English,  and  the  slave 
trade,  366-368. 

Monarchs,  opposition  of,  to  wager 
by  battle,  169,  170. 


Montesquieu,  a  saying  of,  365. 
Moore's     "History     of     Slavery" 

quoted,  371,  373. 
Morality,  Christ  and  personal,  30  ; 

debasement  of  ancient,  38. 
Morals,  ultimate  system  of,  469. 
Morgengabe,  the,  119,  129. 
Monastery,  slaves  entering  a,  56. 
Mother,  position  of  the  American. 

293,  294. 
Mother,  the  Roman,  19,  20  ;  under 

Justinian  law,  22,  23. 
Munster,  Treaty    of,    referred     to 

327- 
Murder,  appeal   to  battle    in,  171, 
172  ;  English  statesmen  on,  172  ; 
an   instance    of,     173  ;    abolition 

of,  173- 
Mussulmans  of  India  (note),  457. 

Napoleon  III.,  Mexican  vessels 
restored  by,  339,  340 

Nations,  modern  relations  between, 
320  ;  and  mercantile  private  pro- 
perty, 339,  340  ;  international 
law  and  non- Christian,  361,  362  ; 
unity  of,  increased  by  freedom  in 
trade,  422,  423 ;  humanity  be- 
tween, 424. 

Neckar,  the  revolted  peasants  of, 

234 

New  York,  divorce  in,  307  ;  mar- 
riage in,  311,  312. 

New  World,  slaves  introduced  into 
the,  364,  365. 

NichoU,  Sir  J.,  quoted,  341. 

Norman  Conquest,  slavery  after 
the,  249. 

Norman,  ideal  of  chivalry,  the, 
263. 

Northern  nations  and  intemper- 
ance, 43.3,  434- 


514 


INDEX. 


Novella,  Justinian's,  on  marriage, 
34. 

Oath,  the  compurgator's,  163, 

Oaths,  form  of,  in  wager  by  battle, 
165.  166. 

Oaths,  knighthood,  254,  255. 

Offerings,  the  month  of,  102. 

Oppressed,  Roman  laws  favouring 
the,  85. 

Ordeal,  the,  1 74  ;  Church  opposed 
to,  174 ;  gradual  abolition  of, 
175-177;  abolished  by  Chris- 
tianity, 273,  274. 

Origen  quoted,  90,  91. 

Orleans,  synod  of,  and  schools,  219, 

Orphans,  laws  concerning,  85. 

Otterburne,  the  Scots  after,  259. 

Ovid  referred  to,  73. 

Palaye,  St.,  on  knighthood,  255,  257. 
Paris,  congress  of,  1856,  referred  to, 

338,  346,  348. 
Parliament,     English,      petitioned 

against  slavery,  374. 
Paternal  authority,  Roman,  9,  12. 
Paul,  St.,  on  God  working  in  man, 

446. 
Paul  the  Stoic,  on  woman,  25. 
Pauperism  and   the  Christian,  417, 

418. 
Pauperism,  causes  of  Roman,  96  ; 

imperial  relief  of,  98. 
Paulus,  JuHus,  referred  to,  75. 
Peace  establishments,  cost  of  Euro- 
pean, 321. 
"  Peace    of  God,"    nature   of    the, 

145,    146  ;    preaching   the,     151, 

152  ;  restraining  feuds.  214. 
Peace,   the   pledge  of,    147  ;  efforts 

to    establish,    148,     149 ;  versus 

war,  333. 


Peace,  victories  of,  346-354  ;  fina* 
step  to  universal,  357  ;  vhe  idea 
of  Christ,  361. 

Peasants,  condition  of,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  232  ;  revolts  and  demands, 
233,  234  ;  revolt  of  the  English, 

235- 

Penitentials,  Theodosius,  quoted, 
241. 

Perceforest  on  knightly  hospitality, 
262. 

Period,  Roman,  resum^  of  reforms 
in,  106. 

Perjury,  Charlemagne's  law  con- 
cerning, 303,  304. 

Persecution,  origin  and  cause,  441  ; 
of  the  Jews,  442  ;  opposed  to 
Christianity,  442  ;  protests 
against,  443,  444. 

Person,  love  for  a  Divine,  38  ; 
Christianity  embodied  in  a,  106. 

Peru  and  Japan,  arbitration  be- 
tween, 350. 

Pestilence,  diminution  of,  431,432. 

Philosophers,  the  i8th  century, 
,2,^7,  388.  [397. 

Pinckney,  General,  on  duelling, 

Piracy,  201. 

Places  sacred  from  feuds,  139. 

Plato  on  unnatural  vices,  37,  38. 

"  Pledge  of  Peace,"  the,  147. 

Pliny  referred  to,  'J2>- 

Poictiers,  council  of,  and  private 
war,  148. 

Political  economy,  Christianity  the 
basis  of,  421. 

Popes,  efforts  in  the  cause  of  peace, 
150  ;  and  wager  by  battle,  168  ; 
and  the  ordeal,  175  ;  learning  en- 
couraged by,  222. 

Poor,  number  of  Roman,  98;  evils 
of  free  divorce  among,  310; 


INDEX. 


515 


Christ  the  true  friend  of  the, 
4(8,419. 

Portalis  on  the  citizen  during  war, 
341- 

Poverty,  relief  of,  by  Christians,  68 ; 
insurance  against,  416,  417. 

Powers,  neutral,  during  war,  345, 
346. 

Pravada,  character  of  the,  140. 

Principles,  Plato's  three,  2>7  »  ulti- 
mate issue  of  Christ's,  45. 

Prison,  early  reforms  of,  86,  87. 

Prison  reforms  the  result  of  Chris- 
tianity, 400,  401. 

Prisons,  old  American,  401  ; 
debtors',  409. 

Prisoners,  courtesy  to,  259 ;  chiv- 
alry and,  261  ;  treatment  of,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  325,  326  ;  enslave- 
ment of,  327  ;  treatment  by  non- 
Christian  nations,  328  ;  Grotius 
on  the  enslaving  of,  331,  332. 

Privateering,  Grotius  on,  331,  335, 
336  ;  history  of  European,  336- 
340  ;  gradual  abolition  of,  341. 

Problem  to  work,  a,  2. 

Property,  Roman  parents'  power 
over,  13,  14  ;  Roman  woman  and, 
19  ;  in  marriage,  20,  21  ;  Christ 
and  the  distribution  of,  93  ; 
industrial  system  of,  93,  94 ; 
partnership  in,  295,  296 ;  pri- 
vate marine,  334,  340  ;  Christian 
teaching  respecting,  413,  414. 

Prostitution,  problem  of,  315,  316  ; 
safeguards  against,  317-319. 

Protestant  Church  and  slavery, 
the,  366. 

Proudhon  quoted,  414,  415. 

Proverb,  an  old  Roman,  25. 

Prussia  and  United  States,  treaty 
referred  to,  337. 


Prussian,  code,  divorce  under,  305  ; 

ordinance  about  serfdom,  388. 
Purity,    Christ    and    personal,   29 ; 

and  the  early  Fathers,  30 ;  duty 

of  masculine,  317, 

Quakers,  opponents  to  the  slave 
trade,  371-374- 

Race,  degeneracy  of  the  Roman, 
1 10, 1 1 1  ;  a  new  one  needed,  1 1 1, 
113  ;  a  barbarous,  with  Christi- 
anity, 112,  113. 

Races,  treatment  of  inferior,  424- 
426  ;  power  of  highly  developc^d, 

471-473- 

Rantzan,  Count,  and  his  serfs,  388. 

Rebels,  treatment  of  by  United 
States,  426. 

Reform,  early  prison,  86,  87  ;  com- 
mencement of  modern  prison, 
399  ;  result  of  Christianity,  400, 
401. 

Reforms,  basis  of  modern  legal,  35. 

Reforms,  Justinian,  66. 

Religion,  safeguard  against  vice, 
319  ;  safeguard  against  intem- 
perance, 437,  438,  440;  and 
science,  468. 

Religious  laws,  211,  213. 

Renan  quoted,  430. 

Revelation,  a  continuity  of  Divine, 
445,  446. 

Revenge,  law  substituted  for,  207 
208  ;  curbed  by  Christianity 
272. 

Rights,  royal  claims  to  wreckers' 
199. 

Rig- Veda  referred  to,  448. 

Reprisals  during  war,  343. 

Robertson,  Chief  Justice,  on  mat>i 
riage,  306. 


I6 


INDEX. 


Robinson,  J.,  on  persecution,  443. 
"  Romance  of  the    Rose  "  quoted, 
265. 

Roman,  parental  authority,  9- 
14  ;  laws  of  succession,  15-18  ; 
woman,  19  ;  the  forms  of  mar- 
riage, 20  ;  free  marriage,  21  ; 
divorce,  23  ;  unnatural  vices,  36- 
40  ;  slavery,  41,  47-50  \  gladia- 
torial games,  61-63  ;  human 
sacrifices,  64  ;  licentious  shows, 
64  ;  serfdom,  70  ;  exposure  of 
children,  72  ;  law,  84,  160  ;  pau- 
perism, 96,  97  ;  collegia,  100  ; 
resum^  of  reforms,  106;  torture, 
178. 

Romans  and  international  law, 
332-334;  persecution  under,44i. 

Rome,  Church  of,  and  the  African 
slave  trade,  365,  366. 

"Royal  Truce,"  the,  151. 

Rufus,  King,  cruelty  of,  326. 

Rush,  Dr.,  on  the  slave  trade,  372. 

Russia,  serfdom  abolished  in,  389. 

Russian  code,  character  of  an  old, 
140. 

Sachsenspiegel,  the  German  code, 

239- 
Sakya-muni,      legend      of,     451  ; 

defects  in  his  teaching,  452. 
Salvian  quoted,  68. 
Saxon    kings,    moral   teaching   of, 

208  ;  laws  against  feuds,  213. 
Saxons,  voluntary  death  of,  62. 
Scandinavia,  abolition  of  slavery  in, 

239- 
Scandinavian  woman,  position  of, 

123,  124. 
Sceptics  and  torture,  188. 
Schools,  early  Christian,  219,  220, 

23X 


Schouler  on  marriage,  306. 

Schwabia,  dema  nds  of  the  pea- 
sants of,  233,  234. 

Science,  Christians  the  leaders  in, 
218  ;  and  religion,  468. 

Scotland,  torture  in,  185  ;  serfdom 
in,  252. 

Sects,  persecution  among,  442. 

Seigneur  and  his  ward,  the,  131, 
132. 

Seneca  and  Roman  parental  power, 
ID,  II;  on  divorce,  23  ;  on 
woman,  24  ;  and  the  exposure 
and  mutilation  of    children,  73, 

74- 
Serfdom,   Roman  law    concerning^ 

70,  71  ;   influence  of  Christianity 

upon,  107,  225,  228,  229  ;  Roman, 

224. 
Serfdom,  modern,  387  ;  influences 

at   work    to   abolish,    387,    388 ; 

royal   ordinances    against,   388  ; 

general  abolition  in  Europe,  389, 

390- 
Serfdom  in  the  Middle  Ages,  228, 

232,  238. 
Serfs,  English,  250,  252. 
Shipwrecked,  cruelty  to,  197  ;  and 

mercantile     communities,     198  ; 

efforts    on   behalf  of  the,    199  ; 

European    legislation    for,   200; 

humanity  to,  200. 
Shoemaker,  the  torture  of  a  poor, 

188. 
Shows,  Roman,  licentious,  62 ;  laws 

against,  65. 
Sidney,      Sir      Phihp,      and      the 

wounded     soldier,    referred     to, 

261. 
Sigismund,  Emperor,  proclamation 

of,  235. 
Slave,  the  Roman,  41 ;  legal  status. 


INDEX. 


517 


50;  moral  and  social  condition, 
50,  51  ;  and  judge,  69. 

Slave-market,  raising  children  for, 
242. 

Slave,  punishment  for  killing  a,  244. 

Slavery,  ancient  and  modern,  41  ; 
Christ  silent  on,  42,43;  influence 
on  the  Roman  empire,  42  ;  and 
Christianity,  45  ;  Stoics  and,  47  : 
laws  of  Constantine  on,  52-54  ; 
laws  of  Justinian  on,  55   58. 

Slavery  in  the  Middle  Ages,  226, 
238-24C  ;  gradual  disappear- 
ance of,  363. 

Slavery  in  England,  241  ;  eman- 
cipation from,  245-248  ;  after 
the  Norman  Conquest,  249  ; 
and  the  Church  councils,  249. 

Slavery,  influence  of  Christianity 
upon,  278,  279. 

Slavery,  in  British  colonies,  376  ; 
in  the  United  States,  377  ;  soph- 
isms regarding,  377-379  ;  protest 
of  religious  bodies  to,  379,  380  ; 
noble  men  opposed  to,  381,  382  ; 
final  struggle  against,  in  America, 

384- 

Slave  trade,  forbidden  in  England, 
248,  249. 

Slave  trade,  modern  African,  364, 
368 ;  licenses  granted  for,  367  ; 
religious  opposition  to,  371  ; 
opponents  in  Great  Britain,  n^i  '■> 
struggles  for  and  abolition  of, 
374-376. 

Slaves,  Roman,  cruelty  to,  47  ; 
number  of  Roman,  49,  50  ;  duty 
of  emancipating,  53  ;  humanity 
towards,  54  ;  gradual  emanci- 
pation of,  58-60  ;  mutilation  of, 
forbidden,  67  ;  ransomed  by  the 
Church,  6S. 


Slaves,  condition  of,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  226  ;  freeing,  227  ;  Acts  in 
favour  of,  227  ;  decree  of  the 
council  of  Chalons,  228  ;  forms 
of  emancipation,  230. 

Slaves,  number  of,  in  England,  243  ; 
protection  and  emancipation  of 
245-248  ;  motives  for  emanci- 
pation, 251. 

Slaves,  introduction  of  negro,  into 
Europe,  364  ;  first  cargoes,  367  y 
number  imported,  369,  370. 

Sleeplessness  enforced,  181. 

Smith,  Sir  T.,  on  English  wives, 
134  ;  on  appeal  to  battle,  171, 
172  ;  on  torture,  185  ;  "Common- 
wealth of  England  "  quoted,  251  ; 
quoted,  327. 

Socialism  and  Christianity,  414, 
415. 

Societies,  ancient  insurance,  99  ; 
American  temperance,  436. 

Society,  natural  selection  and,  473  ; 
Christianity  and  a  perfect,  475, 
476. 

Soldiers,  anecdotes  of  Christian,  89 ; 
early  Christians  not,  91. 

Soul,  Christ's  object  the  renovation 
of,  43  ;  God's  kingdom  the  human, 

43,  44- 
South    Carolina,   divorce    in,   307, 

309- 
Southern  States  of  America,  slavery 

in,  383- 

Spain,  and  the  ordeal,  176  ;  torture 
in,  183,  184  ;  chivalry  in,  266. 

Spencer's  '•  Red  Cross  Knight" 
quoted,  257. 

St.  Petersburgh,  convention  of,  re- 
ferred to,  245. 

Stage,  laws  protecting  women  of 
the,  66,  67. 


518 


INDEX. 


Statesmen,  English,  on  appeal  for 
murder,  172. 

Stoics,  influence  of,  on  Roman  juris- 
prudence, 46  ;  cruelty  to  slaves, 
47,  48,  55  ;  and  the  exposure  of 
children,  75. 

Stoicism,  superficial  character  of, 
51  ;  humane  influence  of,  106. 

Story,  Judge,  on  marriage,  306. 

Stranger,  how  regarded  by  the 
ancients,  190;  humanity  to,  191  ; 
Teutonic  laws  concerning,  191  ; 
Charlemagne  and  the,  192; 
King  Alfred  and  the,  1 93 ; Hun- 
garian law,  193  ;  in  France, 
193-195  ;  in  America,  195; 
Saxon  law  concerning,  210; 
and  Christianity,  275,  276. 

Strappado,  the,  181. 

Succession,  character  of  Roman, 
15;  reforms  under  Christianity, 
16-18. 

Suffering,  nulifference  of  the  Hin- 
doo to  (note),  448. 

SuflVage,  woman  and  the,  296. 

Sunday,  first  laws  concerning,  85, 
86;  Saxon  law  concerning,  210; 
blessings  of,  410-412. 

Superstition,  encouragement  of,  by 
the  Church,  160,  161. 

Supplementary  Chapter  on  rela- 
tions of  Christianity  to  Art  in 
Middle  Ages,  477. 

Swearing,  Saxon  law  against  false, 
211. 

Symmachus,  the  Saxon  slaves  of,  62. 

Syrian  woman,  459. 

System,  property  under  the  indus- 
trial, 93,  94. 


Tacitus,  an  incident  of  slavery  from, 

47  ;  referred  to,  61. 
Tariff,  continental  exactions  of,  420, 

421. 


Teaching,  ultimate  issue  of  Christ's, 

45- 
Temperance,  spread  of,  435    Ameri- 
can societies,  436  ;  in  I  ngland, 

439- 

Territory,  rights  over  heathen,  334  ; 
disputes  as  to,  351. 

Teutonic  tribes,  woman  in,  117; 
marriage  among,  121,  122. 

Theodolfus  on  founding  schools, 
221. 

Theodore,  St.,  of  Stude,  and  slavery, 
42,  59- 

Theodosian  code  referred  to,  12. 

Theodosius,  "Penitentials  "  of,  quo- 
ted, 241. 

Theodosius,  Emperor,  persecuting 
laws  of,  441. 

Tomb,  inscription  on  a,  100. 

Total  abstinence  movement,  437. 

Torture,  use  of,  opposed  by  the 
Church,  162,  185  ;  under  the  Ro- 
mans, 178  ;  confession  under,  179  ; 
and  the  inquisition,  180,  187  ; 
various  forms  of,  180  ;  under  the 
German  code,  181  ;  in  France, 
182  ;  in  Spain,  183  ;  in  England, 
184  ;  in  Scotland,  185  ;  causes  of 
its  spreading,  186  ;  humanity  op- 
posed to,  187  ;  sceptics  and,  188; 
abolition  of,  188  ;  latest  incidents 
of,  188,  189  ;  abolished  by  Chris- 
tianity, 274,  275  ;  instruments  of, 
406. 

Trajan,  Emperor,  gladiatorial  show 
of,  61  ;  supporter  of  orphan  chil- 
dren, 99. 

Trent,  council  of,  referred  to,  220. 

"Truce  of  God,"  the,  152. 

Turks,  results  of  the  conquests  o^ 
112,  113. 

Tutelage,  character  of  German,  120^ 


INDEX. 


S19 


121  ;  of  woman,  130,  131  ;  abol- 
ished in  France,  132. 
Twiss'  "  Laws  of  Nations  "  quoted, 
341- 

United  States,  and  privateering, 
337-339  ;  slavery  in,  377-386  ; 
duelling  in,  396  -  39S  ;  refor- 
matories in,  402  -  404  ;  cruel 
punishments  in,  407,  408  ;  prisons, 
409  ;  intemperance  in,  434,  436  ; 
persecution,  444. 

Usus,  the  marriage  called,  20,  21. 

Utrecht,  treaty  of,  referred  to,  368, 
369- 

Vaison,  council  of,  on  education, 
219. 

Valentinian  and  Roman  laws  of 
succession,  16  ;  laws  for  protect- 
ing children,  79. 

Valois,  count  of,  serfs  freed  by,  238. 

Velabrum,  children  exposed  in  the, 

74. 
Vessels,  disputes  concerning,  348- 

351- 

Vice,  depth  of  Roman,  24  ;  safe- 
guards against,  317-319. 

Vices,  unnatural,  36  ;  Plato  on,  ■^■], 

38  ;  influence  of  Christianity  on, 

39  ;  the  emperors  and,  40. 
Victims,  gladiatorial,  61,  62. 
Villeins,  EngHsh,  250. 
Visigoths  and  the  shipwrecked,  197. 

Wager  by  battle,  161-163  ;  preva- 
lence of,  164  ;  mode  of,  165-167  ; 
forms  of  oaths,  165,  166;  instances 
of,  167  ;  Church  opposes,  168  ; 
opposed  by  monarchs,  169,  170  ; 
slow  abolition  of,  171  ;  in  capital 
offences,   171,  172. 

Wallon  on  slavery,  41,  42. 


War,  Christ's  opposition  to,  88  ;  the 
early  Fathers  and,  89,  90. 

War,  the  citizen  during,  341.  342  ; 
new  codes  of,  342  ;  an  abuse  of, 
343  ;  reasons  for  restricting,  344; 
use  of  arms  restricted  in,  345  ; 
the  great  evil  of  history,  355. 

War,  private,  142  ;  in  France,  143  ; 
effects  of,  144,  145  ;  efforts  to 
check,  147;  curbed  by  Christianity, 
272,  273. 

Wars,  peasant,  282  ;  cost  of  modern, 
320,  321 

Wealth,  distribution  of,  104,  105  ; 
teaching  of  Jesus  concerning, 
465,  466. 

Welsh,  law  respecting  the,  215. 

West  Gothic  laws  respecting  serfs, 
228. 

West  Indies,  slavery  in,  376,  377. 

Whipping,  the  punisliment  of,  408. 

Whittier,  J.  G.,  on  slavery,  371. 

Widow,  the  protection  of  the,  131. 

Widows,  laws  concerning,  85. 

Wife,  the  Roman,  20-23  ;  the  Ger- 
man, 1 18-127;  under  English 
common  law,  286,  290 ;  the  Ameri- 
can, 291,  293. 

Wives,  reasons  for  repudiating,  25  ; 
German's  power  to  sell,  122. 

Wihtraed,  King,  laws  of,  208,  210. 

Wilson's  "  History  of  the  Slave 
Power"  quoted,  371,  372. 

Witchcraft,  torture  employed  in, 
181. 

Witches,  cruel  treatment  of,  176. 

Wladimir  and  the  bishops,  140,  141. 

Woman  under  the  Roman  law,  19  ; 
as  a  mother,  19,  20  ;  and  divorce, 
23  ;  degraded  condition  of,  24  ; 
depravity  of,  24,  25 ;  Stoic  Paul's 
view  of.  34. 


520 


INDEX. 


Woman,  under  Christianity,  35,  36  ; 
under  the  Hindoo  law,  35  ;  influ- 
ence of  Buddhism  on  the  position 
of,  36  ;  laws  to  protect  Christian, 
65,  66 ;  position  influenced  by 
Christianity,  107-109  ;  271,  272. 

Woman,  in  Teutonic  tribes,  117, 
127;  purity  of,  118;  tutelage  of 
120,  121,  130,  131  ;  Scandinavian, 
123. 

Woman,  condition  of,  improved  by 
Christianity,  133,  136  ;  English 
law  and,  134-136  ;  legal  emanci- 
pation of,  134  ;  and  chivalry,  257. 

Woman,  gradual  elevation  of,  283  ; 
modern  position  of,  285  ;  under 


English  common  law,  286-2901 
American  legislation  and,  291  ; 
leading  to  legal  equality,  296  ; 
moral  influence  of,  297  ;  social 
influence,  298 ;  under  agnosticism, 
299. 

Woman,  position  of,  in  India,  448- 
450  ;  in  China,  454  ;  Syrian,  459  ; 
effects  of  tropical  climate  on,  461 

Work,  object  of  the  present,  i,  2. 

Work,  woman's,  in  America,  297. 

Wounded,  care  of,  during  war,  344; 
result  of  religion,  345. 

Writers,  Roman,  on  parental  power, 
ID,  1 1  ;  on  divorce  and  the  degra- 
dation of  woman,  23-25. 


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